The decision by Hargreaves Lansdown to float is likely to tempt privately-owned stockbrokers to dust down any plans they have to seek a market listing, say the FT’s Neil Hume and Robert Orr.
Seymour Pierce and Hoodless Brennan are both believed to have considered IPOs in the past year, while Oriel Securities and Altium Capital are also considered possible flotation candidates.
Cenkos Securities and Arden Partners completed successful flotations last year and Man Group has just outlined plans to float its brokerage arm in New York, but the poor performance of Bridgewell Securities since its June listing has affected investor sentiment and made any possible future IPO a hard sell.
The slowdown in the flow of new issues on the junior Aim market has also dented confidence. Last week, Execution, a broker specialising in large-cap UK and European stocks, decided against an Aim listing, opting instead to sell a 10 per cent stake to Bank of Scotland.
On Tuesday, Richard Griffiths, the founder and former chairman of Evolution Group, will float his new vehicle, Ora Capital Partners, on Aim. Ora, which has a market value of £120m, is not a traditional stockbroker but a boutique investment company.