Proactive Investors - Liquidity venue for unlisted equities JP Jenkins has attracted more than 40 UK brokers, including 16 who have completed a “full digital integration” providing automated buy and sell orders, the group announced on Tuesday.
JP Jenkins has worked with its parent company InfinitX to migrate a fully digital offering to match unquoted companies with investors in the private market as an alternative to often expensive and rigorous public listings.
“For the past 12 months, the team at JP Jenkins has been working hard with both the broker community and capital market infrastructure providers to ensure we can fully automate our trading processes,” said Mike McCudden, chief executive of JP Jenkins.
“Following the completion of this, I am delighted to announce that as from today, we are now a digital-first platform where any regulated broker or other financial institution can connect into our venue, enabling them to view indicative prices and lodge buy or sell orders against relevant securities.”
Brokers can access JP Jenkins’ issuers via their existing connections to Order Management Systems providers IRESS and Winterflood Securities.
Andrew Stanclife, head of execution services at Winterflood Securities, commented: “2024 is now on course to be a pivotal year for venues catering to the liquidity needs of private companies.”
He pointed to an upcoming HM Treasury consultation looking into the role private liquidity disruptors can play in helping to reinvigorate London’s floundering position as a global capital markets hub.
Private market valuations have become a source of anxiety for financial watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) following two years of interest rate hikes imposed by the Bank of England.
Last October, FCA chief executive Nikhil Rathi announced a review of how private valuations are being determined, and whether artificially high valuations could cause risk for the financial sector.
Unlike the public markets, private companies are not priced in real time, leaving true valuations open to input delays speculation.
But more sophisticated private liquidity venues could provide greater transparency to the private markets.
Brokers now connected on an automated basis to the JP Jenkins platform include IG, Jarvis, AJ Bell, Charles Stanley (LSE:CAY), James Sharpe, Hargreaves Lansdown (LON:HRGV), Investec, Kyte, Rathbone, Ramsey Crookall, Interactive Investor, ITI, Intrinsic, Albert E Sharpe, Killik, Raymond James, FIS Global, Winterflood Securities and Shore Capital.