CRH shareholders back primary listing switch to New York from London

By Graham Fahy

DUBLIN (Reuters) – CRH shareholders on Thursday approved a plan to move the building materials company’s primary stock market listing to New York from London, with CEO Albert Manifold predicting “significant benefits” from the switch.

More than 95% of shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting backed the move by the Dublin-based company.

CRH is the largest building materials supplier in the United States and generated about 75% of its core earnings there last year.

CEO Albert Manifold said the move would help CRH benefit from large U.S. government spending programmes and open up tax advantages in future mergers and acquisitions, helping it achieve a “higher vector of growth”.

“We see significant benefits by representing ourselves to be truly an American company,” Manifold told journalists after the meeting.

“This leaves us at last on a level playing field with our competitors over there in what is a very competitive market.”

The company switched its primary listing to London from Dublin more than a decade ago and will now de-list from Dublin completely.

As part of the New York move, the company’s shares will migrate from premium to a standard listing on the LSE.

Britain’s appeal as a global financial centre has lost its lustre as companies, such as UK chip designer ARM, have sought listings in rival hubs such as New York and after the country was largely cut off from the European Union by Brexit.

British biopharmaceutical company OKYO Pharma in April announced plans to scrap its London listing and move its shares to New York while shareholders at betting company Flutter Entertainment have backed plans for an extra listing in the United States.

(Reporting by Graham Fahy; writing by Conor Humphries; editing by David Goodman and Jason Neely)