Marex’s IPO
Agency: FTI Consulting
Adverse market conditions forced commodities brokerage Marex to abandon an attempt to list on the London Stock Exchange in 2021.
But one year later, following its acquisition of ED&F Man Capital Markets, Marex had been transformed in both size and scope with an increased footprint across the US and Asia Pacific.
It was no longer solely a commodities brokerage, and from 2023 instead focused on clearing – connecting investors to exchanges, particularly in futures and options markets.
Further expansion into new areas meant that Marex was now a diversified financial services company, that was completely different from the business that first tried to float. But it still could not shake the impression externally that it was basically a commodities broker.
And when it announced plans to list on the Nasdaq market, it found that US investors were either unaware of the business or did not view it as a diversified financial services company.
The challenge was to reframe its positioning and build up awareness amongst the US financial community.
But its plans to list in the US also coincided with a raft of other British companies choosing the same avenue, leading to intense British media speculation about the declining appeal of the London Stock Exchange, which could potentially overwhelm the story of Marex.
To fix these issues, Marex set out three objectives.
It had to showcase its growth and transformation, repositioning it away from a commodities broker into a mature, diversified financial services company.
It needed to build awareness in the US.
And it needed to manage the narrative to ensure that the media did not link its IPO plans with the perceived decline in the London Stock Exchange’s appeal.
In May 2023, Marex hired a new head of corporate affairs, Nicola Ratchford, to help tell its story as it prepared for life as a public company.
With less than a year until its planned Nasdaq listing, Ratchford had to build a team from scratch to cover media, events, employee communications and brand.
Marex also had to work with its agency partner FTI to develop key messages to use across analyst and roadshow presentations and in both social and traditional media.
The banner phrase Diversified. Resilient. Dynamic was used to highlight Marex’s financial strength and diversification across product and region.
Individual journalist briefings were held to clarify any misunderstandings about Marex’s evolution from a broker to a diversified financial services company. And a new ‘hype video’ was created to explain its business model.
From Ratchford’s appointment to the IPO, media mentions of Marex rose 43% while there was a 45% uplift in website traffic and a 538% increase in organic social media traffic. The company also grew its LinkedIn followers from 18,000 to 30,000, with a 600% increase in engagement.
Marex listed on Nasdaq in April 2024 with a market cap of around $1.3 billion, three times greater than its proposed valuation at the time of its ill-fated listing.
Indeed, such was the success of its strategy, generating strong demand from investors, that it was able to conduct a secondary placing six months later, increasing its public float to 52%.
Its listing coincided with the launch of a new brand, uniting Marex under one consistent umbrella to demonstrate its connectivity across the business.
The judges said: ‘The campaign skillfully overcame legacy perceptions and a cancelled IPO to strategically reposition the business, launch a new visual brand, and boost awareness internally and externally. Impressive growth in engagement across channels – combined with message cut-through – led to a highly successful Nasdaq listing.’