Bolt chief executive Markus Villig talked down the possibility of his company choosing London for its upcoming IPO with the suggestion that tech firms struggle to find long-term value in European public markets.
Speaking at London Tech Week, Villig was asked if London was being considered for the hotly anticipated public float of the Estonian ride-sharing giant.
“Let me look at the IPOs that have happened in the UK over the last five years. How many of them are left?” Villig said.
Pointing to recent foreign acquisition deals for UK-listed firms, such as Deliveroo and Darktrace, as well as last week’s decision from Wise to move its primary public listing to New York, Villig warned the recent performance of tech listings in London, as well as across Europe, made it less competitive than the US.
“Europe doesn’t have a great track record of even having IPOs, not to mention having them actually stay here.”
For Villig, the reason is simple, it largely comes down to liquidity.
“When you look at the statistics today, the US daily trading volumes are about 10 times than what we have observed all across Europe, the UK included.
“People across Europe are not investing in public companies, not investing in equities, same with the pension funds. There just isn’t enough money being deployed.”
Villig acknowledged the efforts made by the British government to address the issue, including the Mansion House Accord that encourages pension assets to be put into startups, warning without a “change of mindset”, Europe and the UK would “continue to fall behind”.
Despite his critiques, Villig said he has not completely written off London as a potential destination for a public float.
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