Ryanair all set to drop London listing in a first blaming Brexit

Bloomberg

Ryanair Holdings Plc is considering delisting from the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in the latest setback to the UK’s stock market arising from Brexit.
The Irish discount carrier cited compliance headaches tied to Britain’s exit from the European Union as it weighs joining a growing list of firms that are disappearing from the bourse.
Dublin-based Ryanair is required to be EU-owned and controlled, Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary said in an interview. UK nationals aren’t counted as EU-based anymore, leaving the company with just over one-third of its shares held by members of the bloc, he said. The carrier will retain its main listing in the Irish capital.
“It’s an inevitable consequence of Brexit,” O’Leary said, adding that he expects the exit to take place within six months. “We must be EU-owned and controlled, and delisting from London is a reasonably small initiative in that strategy.”
Ryanair may be the first major company to explicitly cite Brexit in pursuing a delisting, but the divorce has already put pressure on the LSE. With UK equities trading at a discount to global indexes, London’s stock market is shrinking at one of the fastest paces among global listing
centres.
Cheap valuations have unleashed a flood of buybacks by UK companies and encouraged a wave of acquisitions by foreign buyers and well-funded private equity houses. Even as the UK government pursues wide-ranging changes to London listing rules to lure more issuers to the City, big-name companies are leaving the market.
In August, the UK’s blue-chip FTSE 100 Index lost BHP Group, its second-biggest stock by market value. The mining giant is moving to a primary listing in Australia after collapsing a dual arrangement that dates back to the company’s creation two decades ago. Brexit has also prompted British firms such as commercial landlord Hammerson Plc and warehouse group Segro Plc to seek secondary listings on continental European exchanges to maintain access to the wider market.
Ryanair shares fell as much as 4.5% after the announcement, which came along with second-quarter results that missed estimates. The stock traded 0.4% higher. The airline will continue to be listed on the Euronext Stock Exchange in Dublin, with its American depositary receipts traded on Nasdaq. Less than 10% of the carrier’s shares are now traded through London, CFO Neil Sorahan said.
Ryanair has already restricted British shareholders, banning non-EU citizens from buying its ordinary shares and eliminating their voting rights as the breakup took effect at the start of this year.
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