Peel Hunt: Tax Relief Needed for Public Markets
Peel Hunt’s CEO, Steven Fine, is making a bold move, urging for critical tax relief to breathe new life into the London Stock Market. This initiative aims to counter the rising tide of company delistings and encourage fresh listings, proposing the abolition of stamp duty on share trades—a key strategy to combat negativity.Fine also suggests reinstating dividend tax credits and offering entrepreneurs relief on capital gains tax to revitalize investor interest. These steps, he believes, could significantly shift the narrative around the UK’s growth potential. News Directory 3 reports on these critical proposals. What specific impacts will these tax adjustments have on the market? discover what’s next in the ongoing evolution of the London Stock exchange.
peel Hunt CEO Calls for Tax Cuts to Boost London Stock Market
Updated June 11, 2025
Steven Fine, CEO of City broker Peel hunt, is pushing for a series of tax cuts to invigorate London’s stock market, hoping to reverse the trend of companies leaving and stimulate new listings.
Fine is advocating for the elimination of stamp duty on share trades to help “shift this doomloop of negativity that seems to pervade the country.”
In addition,Fine suggests reinstating dividend tax credits for pension funds investing in UK equities,which were abolished in 1997. He also proposes entrepreneurs relief on capital gains tax for business owners who sell shares via an IPO.
Speaking to City AM,Fine said there are several actions that could be taken that “either wouldn’t cost the exchequer a bean or could significantly move the dial on the mindset of people you want to commit to growth in the UK.”
He added, “We’ve got to do somthing to help it happen, and we’ve got these very deep and large pools of capital that we could not force, but nudge a bit more into domestic productive assets.”
London Exodus
These calls come as the London Stock Exchange faces a challenging period, marked by several high-profile company departures. Recently, fintech giant Wise announced it’s intention to move its primary listing to New York.
Earlier this week, semiconductor firm Alphawave agreed to a £1.8 billion acquisition by American chipmaker Qualcomm, while testing equipment specialist Spectris received a £3.7 billion takeover offer from US private equity company Advent.
Despite these exits, Fine maintains that some fast-growing British businesses are still interested in launching IPOs in london, provided the conditions are favorable.
“We’re definitely having more conservations about IPOs than we have done for some time,” he said.
“We don’t have many on the books [at the moment] but we have some.”
“There are quite high-profile unicorn companies in the UK that are quite patriotic. They’d rather be a big fish in a smaller pond hear than hardly known over there.”