Building materials company CRH and British chip giant Arm, both controlled by Japan’s SoftBank, want to avoid London and pursue stock market listings in the United States. However, this was a blow to the U.K.’s post-Brexit agenda.
Indeed, in a statement released on Friday, Arm stated that it intended to pursue a U.S.-only listing this year. In fact, it happens soon after CRH, one of the top FTSE 100 businesses, announced that it will be shifting its major stock exchange listing to New York.
Undoubtedly, the news will confirm worries that foreign rivals are showing better performance than the British stock market.
According to Reuters, SoftBank and Arm have decided that pursuing a U.S.-only listing of Arm in 2023 is the best course of action for the firm and its stakeholders. Moreover, this decision follows months of dialogue with the British Government and the Financial Conduct Authority.
Arm allegedly said it might think about a subsequent IPO there at a later time. Also, it did not fully rule out the potential of listing in London in the future. In truth, it didn’t offer any more information.
The decision was made in spite of the British government’s vigorous lobbying attempts to get the chip designer to list its shares in the U.K. capital. With 6,000 employees worldwide and 3,000 in the UK, Cambridge-based Arm is considered as the crowning achievement of the British tech sector.
The business dominates the semiconductor industry and licenses its microchip designs to some of the biggest makers of consumer electronics. Arm-based CPUs are found in around 95% of smart phones, including the Apple iPhone, worldwide.
London has loosened its listing regulations. This has been an effort to entice top global tech firms to list in the United Kingdom. But, it encounters difficulties. On the other hand, investment funders lament their ignorance of many unsuccessful digital firms.
British chip giant Arm is not the only one aiming over the Atlantic. Construction materials behemoth CRH announced on Thursday that it was also exploring a New York listing for “as soon as practicable” participation in the US stock index.
