SquareBook wins FCA approval to offer IPO services
SquareBook aims to improve the Initial Public Offering (IPO) process after receiving approval from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to offer innovative new services, reports Jane Connolly.
The company is targeting conflicts of interest that can arise about allocation of shares, by unbundling a process that appears to serve the needs of financial intermediaries rather than those of the issuers and investors.
“In the last 30 years, every aspect of the equities investment lifecycle has been dramatically improved by pursuing policies that promote competition and reduce the barriers to innovation and new services,” says Richard Balarkas, co-founder of SquareBook.
“Yet there has been little or no industry focus on the equity IPO process, which is in a state of atrophy. Instead of facilitating capital raising, the IPO process itself limits the efficient allocation of capital and ultimately constrains the size and liquidity of the secondary markets.”
He adds: “SquareBook aims to dismantle the layers of unnecessary complexity in the IPO process and provide a fresh, modern, efficient means of conducting an equity fundraising on regulated markets.”
SquareBook received regulatory authorisation under Article 25 (2) of the Regulated Activities Order to ‘make arrangements with a view to transactions in investments’ after taking part in the FCA’s Sandbox initiative in 2018/19.
