Building materials giant CRH is to move its listing from London to New York, joining a procession of businesses snubbing Britain’s stock market.
The FTSE 100 company, which is worth nearly £33bn, plans to seek shareholder approval to move its primary listing to the US in 2023.
CRH said: “Our exposure to [the US] is likely to increase further driven by substantial increases in infrastructure funding, a renewed drive for the onshoring of manufacturing activity and significant levels of under-build in the residential construction market.”
It is the latest blow to the London Stock Exchange (LSE), which has seen several companies seeking to leave in recent years as it struggles to keep pace with rival markets.
Last month, Paddy Power-owner Flutter said it was considering a US listing, while Ferguson, the plumbing and heating giant, left London’s blue-chip index last year and moved its primary listing to Wall Street.
British technology giant Arm is also set to spurn advances from Rishi Sunak to float in London and instead opt for New York, in a blow to the Prime Minister’s attempt to convince high-tech companies to go public in Britain.
The company, which is owned by the Japanese multinational SoftBank, will list its shares in the US when it floats later this year, according to reports last night.
Known as a comfortable home for banks, miners and oil companies, the LSE has struggled to attract the kind of high-growth technology businesses that largely drove the growth of international exchanges over the last decade.
CRH has had its primary listing in London since 2011 and has a secondary listing in Dublin, where it is headquartered.
Analysts said moving its listing to the US would result in a higher share price for the company and give it better exposure to key markets.
Shares jumped by more than a tenth to £43.87 in early trading on Thursday.
Asked about CRH’s proposed move, David Schwimmer, chief executive of the London Stock Exchange Group, said: “If companies are going to make decisions when most of their business is in the US, that sort of is what it is.”