LSE chief pushes for big screen outside HQ to champion market successes

The London Stock Exchange wants to erect a screen outside its Square Mile headquarters to showcase the market’s success stories and combat pessimism over its future.

Julia Hoggett, LSE chief executive, said on Thursday she was “campaigning” for permission to put a screen on the front of the building, located at Paternoster Square just yards from St Paul’s Cathedral.

The plan is the latest by Hoggett to revive the fortunes of a market hit particularly hard by the global dearth of initial public offerings in recent years.

Hoggett, who has led the bourse since 2021, said she wanted to “celebrate” the successes of London-listed companies and make sure these were “visible on the outside”.

Despite equities trading having almost entirely gone electronic, the ability to promote a company’s IPO in a physical form to the outside world remains part of the armoury of stock exchanges including Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange.

Any move to put up a screen would be likely to face scrutiny from planning officials at the City of London Corporation. Getting clearance for the idea was “not straightforward”, Hoggett said at an event hosted by the Quoted Companies Alliance, without giving specifics on what the screen would show.

The City of London said it was in talks with the LSE over the plan.

New York’s Nasdaq uses its seven-storey billboard in Times Square to show opening and closing ceremonies as well as to promote other milestone moments for clients. Similarly, the New York Stock Exchange, its downtown rival, hangs giant banners over the neoclassical facade of its 121-year-old building, while inside new listings are often invited to ring the market’s opening bell over its trading floor.

Stock exchanges without suitable outside space have resorted to other forms of photo opportunity: new listings in Hong Kong get to bang an opening gong — the size of which typically depends on the importance of the IPO.   

Hoggett’s comments came as online fashion chain Shein, valued at $66bn in its last funding round, considers listing on the LSE. But its ambition has already drawn concern from some UK fund managers over the group’s alleged treatment of workers. Founded in China, Shein said it had zero tolerance for forced labour.

Latham & Watkins lawyer Mark Austin, who has been part of efforts to overhaul City rules to make the UK a more attractive listing venue, told the same event that people working in the financial sector had “a responsibility now to talk positively” about the changes. 

“It’s very important now that we create that positive narrative because I’ve learned that talking negatively creates a negative perception which creates negative reality, which is often unfair and unfounded,” he said. “Happily, the opposite is also true: if you talk positively, you create a positive reality.”

Hoggett, who previously worked at the Financial Conduct Authority, has been among the executives pushing for the UK to allow more risk-taking in an effort to boost economic activity. 

But she said the level of risk allowed in the financial system was a political decision.

The government has moved in recent months to allow more risk-taking. Hoggett warned it was important that politicians and the public did not immediately blame regulators whenever a company hit problems.

“They’re in a difficult situation . . . that if anything goes wrong, they’re called in front of the [Treasury select committee],” she said, referring to a high-profile parliamentary group that scrutinises financial watchdogs.