The London Stock Exchange is gearing up to welcome as much as £20bn in retailer listings amid hopes that the British high street could be key to reviving the capital’s ailing public markets.
Three of the UK’s biggest retail brands – Primark, Boots and Waterstones – each appear to be in the advanced stages of drawing up plans to join the public markets over the coming months as their owners bet on IPO reforms and a government-led investing campaign to provide fertile conditions for floats.
On Tuesday morning Primark owner ABF confirmed shareholder hopes that it would be spinning off the £10bn-a-year clothing retailer before the end of 2027, adding that it expected Primark to become a constituent of London’s blue-chip FTSE 100 upon completing the demerger.
Separately, Waterstones is on the cusp of signing up bankers to deliver its £2bn float – with London viewed as the first-choice venue – while it was reported that 177-year-old chemist Boots would undergo a strategy overhaul in preparation for a listing next year that could value it at as much as £8bn.
London market languishes
The London markets saw a late flurry of IPOs at the back end of 2025, ending a two year-long drought, with the likes of British bank Shawbrook and tinned food giant Princes among new entrants.
But hopes of a revival gathering pace into 2026 were torpedoed by the outbreak of war in Iran, with concerns over the economic fallout leaving IPO plans on ice – though signs the war could be drawing to a close have thawed investor sentiment.
Brian Hanratty, head of equity capital markets at Peel Hunt, told City AM: “If you’d asked me a couple of months ago, actually the answer is still pretty similar now. This is the most constructive we’ve been on the UK IPO market in some time.
“Actually the pipeline is the best we have seen in a number of years,” Hanratty said, adding: “We’d like to see a bit more certainty around the outcomes to get more confidence on the near term outlook for IPOs.”
Primark’s float – the largest and the most certain of the three – seals months of speculation over the fast fashion firm’s future, with owner ABF last year enlisting Rothschild & C to help it carry out a strategic review to weigh up whether to offload the retailer.
The spin-off will occur through a dividend demerger, which will allow ABF to separate off Primark by distributing shares in it to existing shareholders.
The firm said it is “confident” in the prospects of both businesses, and chief executive George Weston – a member of the billionaire Weston family – said the move is an “important step in the evolution” of the group.
Overseas expansion has been a key area of focus for the business, as it seeks to build market share across Europe and the US. Primark today operates 486 retail stores across 19 markets, with £9.5bn of annual revenue and more than 83,000 employees.
