City set for £30 billion float bonanza, some recent headlines shouted. A wave of flotations is on the way and with them a gush of fees for the City’s investment banks, the reports suggested.

Perhaps. The figure may prove accurate, though there is a good deal of bankers' wishful thinking at work here. What is definitely wide of the mark is that the big beneficiaries of this bonanza will be the banks. Sure there are healthy-looking fees to be spread around. But given the amount of work involved in winning and executing IPOs, the banks rarely make fat profits from the business.