Could drift to 30 then taken private for 60p29 Jan 2026 19:24
It's not just the UK's brightest minds leaving the UK for the sunshine, opportunities and tax benefits of Dubai.
Capital is doing the same.
In recent weeks, two of the world's biggest investors, managing trillions of dollars of global pension funds, have confirmed they're pulling massive sums from UK listed companies.
Since November, Norges Bank Investment Management quietly started a plan to sell all it's investments on the LSE, with the exception of a handful of very large FTSE 100 companies. The impact is estimated to be c.£60bn of investment leaving UK shores, despite the UK being the world's 5th biggest economy.
Shortly after news of Norges decision became public, Vanguard announced one of its funds was following suit, pulling an estimated £2bn from the UK and the LSE.
Neither institution is withdrawing from the UK because there's better value elsewhere in the world - it's common knowledge that companies on the LSE are wildly undervalued, hence the record premiums paid for any company accepting bids to leave the UK market.
It's now commonplace for bidders to pay over 100% premium to a LSE company's share price in order to be successful.
In 2025, c£41bn of take-private deals were announced, on top of the £55bn announced in 2024. This compares to £1.9bn raised from new IPOs in 2025 and £800m in 2024.
And so companies worth £96bn exited the LSE in the past 2 years, while only £2.7bn of new monies was raised, a ratio of 36:1.
For now, London's economy (the UK's financial heart and lungs) is coping. The fees involved in selling companies on the LSE are lucrative, and there's been plenty to go around.
But the selling eventually dries up if the LSE can't feed the IPO hopper to ensure there are companies to sell in the future. UK IPOs have been an enigma these past few years, and the Norges/Vanguard decision has only made new IPOs even less likely.
Yes, on the face of it the LSE has had a couple of good years. In 2025, the FTSE 100 outperformed the US! The only explanation can be a good chunk of the £96bn funds crystalized from the sale of LSE companies was reinvested back into the LSE by funds required to do so.
This is because we know that every month there's a net outflow of funds from the LSE, usually at a quickening pace.
ChatGPT reliably says the LSE has seen 10 consecutive years of funds outflow:
➡️ 2025: a record £11bn outflow
➡️ 2024: a record £10bn outflow
➡️ 2023: a record £8bn outflow
This Bermuda triangle effect is a big factor in Norges and Vanguard walking away from the UK, choosing to invest their £62bn in other markets, many of which are much smaller countries.
What you can be sure of is that every other global institution will be reviewing it's strategy for the UK and the LSE, much like many young people are considering their options for Dubai....
Everyone is asking who's next to leave the UK - people, companies, sovereign funds? The question should be
Sign In
Follow the stocks
