Americas

Supporting companies across the Atlantic

  1. Overview
  2. What's new
Contact us

A bridge across the Atlantic

The London Stock Exchange offers a unique gateway connecting companies from the Americas to deep, global pools of capital. Our range of markets supports a higher proportion of international companies than any other exchange in the world, backed by the most diverse global investor audience. Since 2017, there have been almost 120 listings from the Americas, spanning a wide range of sectors, funding needs, growth stages, and listing options.

London provides a supportive home for growth companies, enabling founders and investors to access public market liquidity at an earlier stage – often through our AIM market, which is specifically designed to support scaling businesses and has recently revamped its rules to offer even more flexibility. We also offer US and Canadian-listed companies the ability to tap into otherwise inaccessible UK- and European-mandated institutional capital – broadening their shareholder base and enhancing visibility in global equity markets through a London cross-listing on our International Secondary Listing Segment.

Finally, through the International Securities Market and Sustainable Bond Market, we offer issuers a flexible and efficient pathway to list sustainable and/or conventional debt securities, with access to a global investor base and a wide range of currencies and structures.

The London Stock Exchange Americas team brings deep regional expertise and global connectivity, working closely with companies and their advisers to navigate the capital-raising process, make the right connections – including introducing companies to a curated network of experienced advisers – and build a platform for long-term growth in international markets.

IPOs

London offers unparalleled benefits to smaller companies across the Americas – and their investors – when going public:

  • You don’t have to be a decacorn – or even a unicorn – to IPO in London. Companies with equity valuations as low as $50m can successfully access our markets – and do well!
  • Lower cost to list and maintain a listing compared to the US, driven by lower advisory fees and less litigation risk
  • Ability to achieve secondary selldown – even at IPO – providing founders and early investors with access to liquidity at a much earlier stage
  • Ongoing access to growth capital for smaller companies, with the potential to use London as a stepping stone to US equity markets as appropriate scale is achieved

Cross Listings

A London cross-listing enables companies to broaden their investor reach and enhance their global market positioning:

  • Unlock $750bn+ of actively managed UK- and European-mandated capital that is otherwise inaccessible without a London listing
  • Become a bigger fish in the pond – across the pond – a $1bn market cap company stands out in London, ranking among the top 400 listed companies vs around 2,500 in the US
  • Access the most internationally diverse investor base globally, with a higher proportion of actively managed capital
  • Add a London listing with minimal incremental regulatory burden and cost, with US and Canadian reporting accepted in London
  • Newly proposed Express route to listing on AIM for companies already listed on most Americas exchanges with no prospectus required

Private Securities Market

For companies seeking secondary liquidity while remaining private, our Private Securities Market leverages our public market infrastructure to facilitate trading of unlisted securities:

  • World’s first regulated secondaries exchange, providing liquidity for investors, founders and employees of private companies
  • Places companies at the center and in control of the process, bringing public-market efficiency to private-market trading
  • For more information, visit the Private Securities Market

Fixed Income

London offers fixed income issuers from the Americas a path to the deepest pool of global liquidity and heightened visibility with investors. Some of the benefits of listing debt securities in London:

  • Global and diverse debt market, with over 21,000 listed debt instruments and an international issuer base spanning multiple jurisdictions, supporting cross border capital raising
  • Broad currency diversification, with sustainable bonds alone issued in 17 currencies on London Stock Exchange’s markets, enabling issuers to align funding with investor demand across currencies
  • Efficient and cost effective listing process, offering streamlined admission, transparent fee structures and no annual fees for debt securities, reducing execution time and cost
  • Innovative debt products, as the first exchange globally to launch a dedicated sustainable bond segment, now supporting 520+ instruments and approximately £239bn raised

Check out what's happening at the Exchange

Find inspiring content on the Americas from London Stock Exchange

The US: A More Litigious Place to List?

The US is widely perceived to be a litigious country and this extends into the US corporate sphere where class action lawsuits, in which one of the parties is a group of people represented collectively by a member of the group, are a common feature. This is fuelled by generous class mechanisms, contingency fee lawyers and the absence of a ‘loser pays’ rule, which means there is value even in weak claims being settled.

Learn more

Small Cap Companies Find a More Supportive Home in London vs New York

The UK can be a much more supportive environment for companies with market caps below $500m than the US, due to a quality institutional investor base that understands the small cap ecosystem in London as well as generally lower costs for obtaining and maintaining a listing. This allows companies to access the public markets at a much earlier stage than would be normal, for example, in the US.

Learn more

The Gift that Keeps on Giving: Raising Further Capital after IPO in London vs New York

Of all the IPOs on the London Stock Exchange since 2018, 49% have returned to raise money through at least one follow-on deal. In comparison, just 32% of IPOs in the US in the same period returned to raise further capital. This trend is also observed for companies which have returned to raise multiple rounds of capital after IPO. 

Learn more

Contact us

Access the capital you need to grow your business – wherever you are on your funding journey.

  •
    Chris Mayo
    CFA Head of Primary Markets, Americas
  •
    Jake Blawski
    Senior Associate, Primary Markets Business Development, Americas
  •
    Aude Rajonson
    Head of Debt Capital Markets Origination
By submitting this form, you agree to your personal data being shared within the London Stock Exchange Group of companies (LSEG) for the purpose of receiving communications via post, phone and electronic means from LSEG about events, resources, products, and/or services.

For more information on how LSEG uses your data, see our privacy statement. You can adjust your preferences at any time through the preference link in any electronic communication that you receive from us.