Robinhood brings IPO Access to the UK, opening US listings to British retail investors

Eligible UK customers can now request shares in US initial public offerings at the offering price before secondary market trading begins Robinhood has extended its IPO Access service to the UK. Eligible British customers can now request shares in US initial public offerings before those shares start trading. That matters because IPO allocations have long been an institutional party. Retail investors usually show up after the opening bell, buying from whoever got in first, often at a higher price. How IPO Access works Users request shares at the offering price, the price set before a company’s stock hits the secondary market where public trading happens. A request is not a purchase. Robinhood’s requests are non-binding, which means customers signal interest without any promise that shares will actually land in their accounts. Allocation runs through Robinhood’s relationships with the underwriters, the banks that manage an offering. When a deal is oversubscribed, meaning demand outstrips supply, Robinhood distributes shares using random or demand-based methods. Under the service’s structure, there are no minimum account thresholds to start a request. There is also no minimum purchase...