Waterstones and Gymshark meet Reeves for London IPO pitch

The multinational bookstore concatenation Waterstones and Gymshark, the athleisure brand, were among the companies which met Rachel Reeves connected Monday arsenic she targets a sustained revival of London’s listings market.

Sky News has learnt that James Daunt, Waterstones' main executive, and Ben Francis, laminitis and CEO of Gymshark, were among much than fractional a twelve executives who attended a roundtable chaired by the chancellor.

Digital banks Oaknorth and Starling; CFC Underwriting; David Lloyd Leisure; and wealthiness absorption steadfast True Potential were besides represented astatine the meeting.

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Sky News revealed astatine the weekend that Ms Reeves was joined astatine the gathering by Goldman Sachs' Anthony Gutman, 1 of the Wall Street firm's apical concern bankers and the City minister, Lucy Rigby.

In the invitation, the Treasury said the contented of London's allure arsenic a listing venue was "a precocious precedence for the government".

"Ministers are keen to perceive your views connected the attractiveness of the UK arsenic a listing destination for firms…and connected the extended bundle of reforms the authorities has undertaken to boost the competitiveness of UK superior markets."

It was not instantly wide whether the gathering was utilized by the chancellor to code questions astir a imaginable stamp work exemption for recently listed shares, which the Financial Times reported past week was nether information by Treasury officials.

The substance was raised during the discussion, according to 1 idiosyncratic briefed connected the talks.

London has slipped down galore rival fiscal centres successful presumption of the proceeds raised from IPOs, portion the determination of large companies including AstraZeneca to upgrade their US listings has formed further uncertainty connected the City's comparative appeal.

A root said the instauration of a Listings Taskforce, announced successful the chancellor's Mansion House code earlier this year, would make UK's "already-compelling transportation for listing successful London".

The Treasury has been contacted for remark pursuing the meeting's conclusion, portion nary of the companies contacted by Sky News would comment.