James Moore: IPOs are back in London, but is it quantity or quality?

Outlook When it comes to flotations, Poundland is going to be joined by others, and sooner rather than later. Investors finally seem almost as ready to buy as the private equity firms that will provide a good chunk of the companies coming to market are to sell.

The sighs of relief around Mayfair and the other posher parts of London are almost audible.

But while London's IPO market is well and truly open for business, it's hardly alone. There are other markets in other financial centres that are interested in taking slices of an expanding pie.

The question for London is whether it has learned to favour quality over quantity. Because quality will eventually go elsewhere if you get too much of a reputation for allowing any old Tom, Dick or Harry plc on to your markets.

The answer to this question will take two or three years to be revealed and will depend on what all these newly minted public companies do for their new investors in the interim.