Norwegian software giant Visma is gearing up to be the latest boost to London’s stock market, as the City comes off its strongest year for IPO activity since 2021 following a late spurt of listings.
London’s stock exchange welcomed 11 flotations this year, raising £1.9bn in total , more than double the proceeds of the previous year.
This boost follows a rush of listings in the final quarter, which restored momentum to a market that has spent much of the past year, and past decade no less, on the back foot.
Now Visma, one of Europe’s largest software groups, is pressing ahead with preparations for a significant public debut in a sign London’s IPO drought could finally be easing.
Last week, Visma expanded the syndicate of banks working on its long-anticipated IPO, adding over a dozen Wall Street, European and Nordic lenders to a heavyweight line-up, including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS.
The variety of the advisory roster is generally seen as a signal of the deal’s scale, with the offering expected to raise billions, and formal marketing pencilled in for the first half of 2026.
London has been provisionally selected as its home, with Lazard acting as financial adviser.
Visma IPO a potential coup for the City
Founded in 1996, Oslo-based Visma sells accounting, payroll and HR software to over 2m small businesses, and has grown through hundreds of bolt-on acquisitions across Europe.
Backed by UK private equity firm Hg Capital for nearly two decades, the company was last valued at about €19bn (£16.59) in a private transaction in 2023, after shelving an earlier IPO in favour of a share sale to institutional investors.
A London listing would represent a rare win for the UK market at a time when it has struggled to retain and attract high-growth technology companies.
In recent years, a steady stream of firms have chosen New York, Amsterdam or Stockholm, or sold themselves to larger competitors, leaving the City with a thin pipeline of large-scale IPOs.
That makes Visma’s tentative tilt towards London particularly significant.
The UK has been rolling out reforms designed to revive its capital markets, including plans to allow euro-denominated shares into FTSE indices, or proposals for a stamp duty holiday on shares in new flotations.
Advisers have argued these changes, combined with London’s deep pool of international capital, could give it an edge over rival venues like Stockholm or Amsterdam.
For the City, which has just turned its fate around and recorded its most robust year for new listings in four years, landing a €20bn-plus tech float would do more than pad out the league tables.
It would help cement the narrative that London’s IPO market is stirring again, and that the late-year revival of 2025 may yet mark the start of a more durable recovery.