Building company CRH to move listing from London to New York
The FTSE 100 will lose one of its biggest companies after the building materials group CRH said it plans to move its primary stock market listing to the US, in a further blow to Rishi Sunak’s ambitions for London as a global financial centre.
CRH, which has its headquarters in Dublin, said it will aim for “US equity index inclusion as soon as possible” in a statement to the stock market.
Sunak has pushed for new rules to make London a more attractive destination for companies to list their shares. However, several companies have in recent months reportedly either rejected the UK or considered leaving.
The prime minister met the leader of Arm and its Japanese owner, SoftBank, in an effort to persuade the chip designer to list in its home country. However, Arm has decided against selling shares in London, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.
The oil company Shell considered moving its headquarters and listing from London to the US before opting to ditch a second share listing in the Netherlands in favour of remaining in the UK, the Financial Times reported this week.
Russ Mould, investment director at the AJ Bell platform, said: “So much for making London the go-to place for companies to list their shares. London Stock Exchange is having to work overtime just to keep those already listed, let alone attract new ones.
“Efforts to relax the listing rules to attract more companies to London come across as a bit desperate. It should be a badge of honour to list in the UK, but that reputation is dwindling fast.
“Overseas investors lost interest in the trading venue as soon as the UK voted in favour of Brexit, and valuations have got even cheaper. That’s hardly a good sales pitch to attract more big companies to the UK market.”
It comes
Read more on theguardian.com
