Published: December 31, 2025 at 9:02 am
The LSE may have had an impressive 2025 but comments by Octopus Energy CEO Greg Jackson have already upped the ante for 2026.
London Stock Exchange could have been forgiven for reflecting on a job well done in 2025 before Jackson lobbed in an end-of-year grenade.
The LSE has come under increasing pressure due to the growing trend of companies choosing to list in New York instead of London because the premiums tend to be higher.
It was against this backdrop that the London Stock Exchange enjoyed its strongest year since 2021, seeing £1.9bn raised from 11 IPOs in 2025.
Q4 saw a flurry of activity with FinTech company Shawbrook and consumer company Princes Group pricing their IPOs at the end of October for £348m and £400m respectively.
The three-year stamp duty holiday on shares in new UK IPOs, announced in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Autum Budget last month, is widely seen as a positive step aimed at boosting the London IPO market.
However, the LSE’s recovery is still fragile, evidenced by the impact of Jackson’s strategic comments.
He told the Press Association that he would ‘love’ to choose London, but admitted it’s a ‘coin toss’ between the UK and New York.
“I would need to see more hustle from the London Stock Exchange (LSE) – they need to be bringing in more capital,” he said.