It would have been bad enough if just one major British company had decided to list its shares in New York rather than London in the space of a single week. But two?
First it was the chip-maker Arm, one of the UK’s very few major technology companies. Then came the building materials giant CRH. Shell also said they came very close to shifting their base to the US. The moment has surely arrived for the UK to radically deregulate its listing regime – or else watch the City slowly wither away.
At this rate, within a few years there might only be a couple of retailers and a bus company on the London Stock Exchange
Fewer and fewer companies have been bothering to list their shares in London for many years. From a peak of 3,300 back in 2007, the number has fallen all the way to less than 2,000 now.
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