Hargreaves Lansdown (HL) urges companies going public to open their IPOs to individual investors worldwide, as technology and regulation remove the barriers to cross-border retail offers.
HL clients have invested more than £1bn in primary market transactions in the last 18 months, and HL participated in 100% of retail IPOs on the London Stock Exchange main market and AIM between March 2025 and March 2026¹.
HL, the UK’s #1 choice for IPOs, charges clients no dealing charges or FX fees on IPOs.
Public Offer Platform regime changes in January 2026 now enable retail investors in the UK access to global IPOs.
Simon Belsham, Chief Client Officer at Hargreaves Lansdown, said:
“Hargreaves Lansdown has been a long-standing champion of retail access to IPOs. We were one of the first to offer retail access to IPOs in the 1990s and continue to champion individual investor ownership of the world’s most profitable companies. Companies sell shares to institutions globally when they go public, and with new technology and regulation, it makes little sense to leave out retail investors.
“As demonstrated by SpaceX, opening IPOs to individual investors worldwide gives companies a deeper, more diverse pool of demand, and gives our clients the chance to invest at the offer price and become owners from day one. With no dealing charges or FX fees on IPOs at HL, we’re the home of IPOs in the UK.”
The recent record-breaking SpaceX IPO demonstrated the strong demand from retail investors for access to global IPOs:
Around 20% of the offering was allocated to individual investors (versus the usual 5-10%) and made the offer accessible to individuals across multiple countries.
In Britain, demand for SpaceX was high: total number of UK retail investor applications was c.120,000 and over £700m in value - the largest UK retail offer since Royal Mail.
HL accounted for roughly half of UK retail demand: 52,000 clients and £325m.
92% of HL clients who participated still held their shares at the end of day one, and nearly 75% still hold them now.
A new audience was attracted to the IPO - 20% of participants were making their first equity trade, and 40% their first US trade.
For recent UK IPOs, 87% of HL clients still held their shares after one month and 73% after six months.
Technology and regulation have now removed much of the cost and complexity that once held back cross-border retail offers. Investment platforms can aggregate demand at scale, and the UK’s new Public Offer Platform regime, in force since January 2026, was designed to broaden access to investment opportunities.
Retail participation in IPOs benefits both sides. Companies reduce their reliance on a narrow institutional book, while individuals can share in returns that have historically been meaningful. US IPOs from 2001 to 2025 delivered an average first-day return of 19.1%². Not every IPO will produce good investment returns, and new listings can be volatile, but HL believes that is no reason to exclude individuals by default. The right approach is clear information on the risks and benefits while an offer is open, and the freedom to choose.
Footnotes
¹ HL data, March 2025 to March 2026.
² Professor Jay Ritter, University of Florida.
Notes to Editors
HL is the UK’s largest investment and savings platform for private investors and more than 2.2 million clients trust us with £205 billion (as of June 2026).
We help Britain build wealth, with confidence. Our promise is simple: to provide the best products, the best support and the best value. Founded in 1981, we’ve been helping people save and invest for a better financial future for more than four decades. We offer a lifelong, secure home for our clients’ investments and savings, combining great value with outstanding service, to make managing your money easier at every stage of life.
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