Some of London’s biggest companies have moved or considered moving their stock listings to New York, where prices tend to be higher, liquidity deeper, and executive salaries bigger. One executive who just made the move says it’s not that simple.
Smurfit Kappa used its 2023 merger with Atlanta-based Westrock to relist from the London Stock Exchange to the NYSE, where it promptly joined the S&P 500. It was one of at least 88 companies in 2024 alone that left the LSE for New York, prompting panic across the City and promises of reform from Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government — chiefly, requiring UK pension funds to invest more in local markets. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves told Semafor earlier this year that she would let companies “access financing here in Britain, rather than having to go to the US.”
“What people forget is it’s an awful lot of work” to win over US investors, Smurfit Westrock CFO Ken Bowles told Semafor. “I don’t think this is a one-year journey — it’s more like three [or] four.” Smurfit Westrock trades below its initial debut on the NYSE, which aligns with the Financial Times’ findings from a broader survey of transplants. Trading liquidity improved — the US stock market is 30 times bigger than London’s — but valuations didn’t change much.
“If you want to be properly rated [by investors], it’s on everybody — including me — to deliver,” Bowles said. “If we’re being honest, [CEO] Tony [Smurfit] and I naively thought, ‘US investors probably know us, we’ve been around forever.’”