Cyber Insurer CFC Weighs £5 Billion London IPO Amid Market Drought

Specialist insurance provider CFC is exploring strategic options that include an initial public offering in London that could value the business at more than £5 billion ($6.7 billion), according to people familiar with the discussions cited by the Financial Times. The company, which focuses on cyber and other niche lines, is also weighing a U.S. listing or an outright sale, the sources said. Any transaction is at an early stage and is unlikely to take place before the second half of 2026, the reports added. CFC’s owners—European private-equity firms EQT and Vitruvian Partners—took a “significant” stake in 2021 in a deal that valued the London-based firm at just over £2.5 billion. An IPO by CFC would inject much-needed activity into London’s equity markets, where only five flotations raised a combined £160 million in the first six months of 2025, the weakest first-half showing in three decades. Market regulators have recently overhauled listing rules in an effort to stem a wave of corporate departures from the UK exchange.