Treasury holds talks with fintech unicorns about London IPO prospects
The City minister is intensifying efforts to convince some of Britain's most valuable financial technology companies to list in London as 'unicorns' including Monzo step up preparations to go public.
Sky News that Emma Reynolds, economic secretary to the Treasury, met executives from businesses such as ClearScore, Monzo, OakNorth and Revolut on Tuesday morning.
Antony Jenkins, the former Barclays chief executive who founded 10x Banking Technologies, a banking software provider, also attended the meeting, alongside Dame Julia Hoggett, chief executive of the London Stock Exchange and Simon Walls, an executive at the Financial Conduct Authority.
The summit comes amid a desperate quest by the LSE to attract prominent new listings, with leading tech names including Deliveroo and the cybersecurity software group Darktrace both having been the subject of takeover bids.
Last weekend, Sky News revealed that Monzo - now the UK's seventh-largest bank - was in the early stages of lining up investment bankers to work on an initial public offering.
Morgan Stanley has been helping the company organise meetings with potential investors ahead of a flotation which could value it at £7bn.
London currently appears to be the favoured choice of its board for a listing, with the first half of next year seen as the earliest window for an IPO to take place.
Revolut, which was most recently valued at $45bn in a secondary share sale, is viewed as being more likely to list in New York in the coming years.
A Treasury spokesperson said: "We are determined to make Britain the best place in the world to start up, scale up and list.
"That's why we are cutting red tape, ensuring businesses can access the capital they need to grow and supporting the country's most exciting companies to thrive through our industrial strategy."
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