Exclusive: Octopus to swerve new private stock exchange
Octopus Energy will not join the delayed Pisces private stock market when it launches, its boss Greg Jackson has said, in a sign the utilities giant is distancing itself from the project after attending an event for interested companies last summer.
Jackson told CityAM that his multi-billion-pound firm had “no plans” to trade its shares on the exchange for fast-growing private firms, which is seen as a key tool in the government’s bid to revive London’s barren initial public offering (IPO) market.
“Anything with an ocean-based name, it’s got to be interesting – Octopus, Kraken and Pisces,” he said, referring to the firm’s technology spin-off. “So I think we’ll be talking to them [the London Stock Exchange]. There are no plans to join though, to be absolutely clear.”
Octopus had been one of several major firms to attend a private conference put on by LSE boss Julia Hoggett last year for scale-up companies interested in joining the exchange, which will allow investors in private companies to trade shares in the firms intermittently.
At the event – first revealed by CityAM – Octopus was listed alongside fintech heavyweights Revolut, Oaknorth and Iwoca as mulling whether to join its Private Securities Market. Also in attendance were Multiverse, the education-tech unicorn founded by Euan Blair, and payments giant Thought Machine.
The LSE became the first official operator of the fledgling exchange, when it was approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to manage a market in August. Commenting at the time, boss Hoggett hailed the decision as a “significant step” towards the launch of its market “later this year”.
Pisces hit by delays
But since the announcement, neither the LSE nor JP Jenkins – the other official operator which was granted FCA approval in November – has been able to launch their market, in a sign they are struggling to attract firms to commit to the unproven project.
Pisces – which stands for private intermittent securities and capital exchange system – was first floated as a potential shot in the arm for Britain’s capital markets in 2024 under the previous Conservative administration. It has been carried forward by Rachel Reeves’s Treasury, which has identified it as an important weapon in its battle to encourage some of the UK’s top firms to pursue a London IPO.
Supporters of the framework – which cannot be used by companies as a means of raising capital and will only permit intermittent trading of shares – argue it will help companies become familiar with the idea of life as a public company, helping improve the UK’s IPO pipeline.
But detractors have warned it is unlikely to move the needle in London’s battle to spark more market debuts, and that private companies are already able to trade their shares on existing platforms operated by the likes of JP Jenkins should they wish.
CityAM understands that fintech darling Iwoca remains interested in joining the LSE’s Private Securities Market, and is in regular contact with the group’s officials ahead of its eventual launch. But another of the fintechs listed as attending the LSE conference last summer has – like Octopus – put its plans to join on ice, according to someone familiar with its plans who said the firm was waiting to see whether other constituents were able to use it effectively.
Octopus boss Jackson is currently pursuing an eagerly anticipated IPO of its tech arm Kraken, which was spun out of the UK’s most valuable energy provider in December. The entrepreneur has since urged the LSE to show “more hustle” to secure the future listing of the £6.4bn tech firm.
Last month, it became the first company to secure a historic £12m equity injection from the taxpayer-backed British Business Bank, in a move Jackson said would boost London’s chances of securing its IPO.
The LSE declined to comment.