UK companies are around $350 million away from a record first quarter for initial public offerings – a milestone that will almost certainly be passed this month with the listings of infrastructure group John Laing Environmental Assets and tech company King Digital Entertainment.

The value of UK company IPOs this year stands at $5.518 billion, according to data provider Dealogic. This is just shy of the $5.865 billion raised by UK companies during the first three months of 2007 - still the highest first-quarter total that Dealogic has on record.