Equipment rental giant Ashtead plans to move its main stock exchange listing to the United States, dealing a further blow to the London Stock Exchange.
The company said the United States was a “natural long-term listing location” because most of its profits were concentrated in North America, along with its bosses, headquarters and most of its employees.
Ashtead is the latest of several large companies to delist from the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in recent years, which denied it was in crisis in May.
Ashtead said it would discuss its proposed move with shareholders before putting it to a vote.
The company aims to move its primary listing to the US in the next 12 to 18 months, but will retain its UK listing as an international business.
The company, which rents out construction equipment, has more than 25,000 employees.
Ashtead said annual profits would be lower than expected due to “local US commercial construction market dynamics”, which will affect rental sales growth.
Companies worth hundreds of billions of pounds have been leaving the London Stock Exchange for the US in recent years, raising concerns about the UK’s attractiveness for investment.
These include Cambridge-based microchip giant ARM Holdings, which is now selling its shares in New York, and Paddy Power owner Flutter.
Ashtead said part of the reason it wants to move is to attract US investors.
Although the US construction industry has been hit by higher interest rates making borrowing more expensive, the firm expects the market for its services to strengthen as rates come down.
Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell, said there had been “rumours” that the firm also wanted to make the move as a “justification for paying top brass a lot of money”.
He said Ashtead had been criticised for a proposed $14m (£11m) pay deal for chief executive Brendan Horgan that was seen as “excessive”.
“That might be the case for UK-listed companies, but not for US-listed ones,” Coatsworth said.
He added that incoming US President Donald Trump “favours American companies doing things for the American people”; moving the listing would be “another point in his favour”.
Coatsworth said the next logical move would be to sell its remaining UK operations, which are “small compared to the US business”.
But an Ashtead spokesman said the move would not affect UK investment plans.
Ashtead’s move comes after UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves changed the government’s self-imposed debt rules to free up billions of pounds for infrastructure investment.
The rule change is expected to allow up to £50bn of additional borrowing to invest in large construction projects such as roads, railways or hospitals.
Ashtead was founded in England in 1947 and has been listed on the LSE since 1986. It expanded to the US in 1990 and by the early 2000s had become one of the country’s largest equipment rental companies.
