Britain has been winning all the wrong prizes of late. Bottom of the G7 growth table, highest inflation in Europe, lowest productivity. The stock market is struggling too. Its problems range from a listings drought and dearth of investment capital for follow-on funding, to domestic investor disdain. Valuations also don’t reflect companies’ real worth – encouraging them to pack up and head for the US or leaving them vulnerable to being picked up on the cheap by overseas investors.
The good news is that with alarm bells now ringing loudly, government, market participants and regulators have launched initiatives to address the issues. The question is: can they reverse the flow of capital away from London?
First, though, it’s worth pointing out that many of these issues are not confined to the UK. Poor investor sentiment, the drying up of IPOs and companies ditching their home listings for the US are blighting European markets too.