If you had arrived on earth from Planet Zog over the last few weeks, you would be forgiven for thinking that the London Stock Exchange was dying or on its knees.
The headline on one column in the Times said: “The London Stock Exchange needs life-support” with a strap line claiming that “jobs and tax revenue are at risk unless the ailing exchange is revived by relaxing archaic rules.”
Even lifestyle magazines such as GQ are having a pop. In an interview with Matt Moulding, the Burnley billionaire boss of the Hut Group, the magazine’s headline declared: “THG boss Matt Moulding: The obvious lesson is don’t IPO in the UK.”
Moulding, whose e-commerce beauty to fashion group was one of the biggest IPOs on the London Stock Exchange last year, was moaning about how the experience of floating ‘has just sucked from start to finish.’
