Blow to UK as equipment hire giant Ashtead heads for US

Equipment prosecute elephantine Ashtead plans to determination its superior banal marketplace listing to the US successful a caller stroke to the London Stock Exchange.

It said the US was a "natural agelong word listing venue" due to the fact that astir of its nett was successful North America, on with its bosses, office and the bulk of its employees.

Ashtead is the latest of respective large companies successful caller years to delist from the London Stock Exchange, which denied it was successful situation successful May.

Ashtead said it would sermon its projected determination with shareholders earlier putting it to a vote.

The steadfast aims to determination its superior listing to the US successful the adjacent 12 to 18 months, but it volition support a UK listing arsenic an planetary company.

The company, which hires retired operation equipment, has much than 25,000 employees.

Ashtead said yearly profits would beryllium little than expected owed to "local commercialized operation marketplace dynamics successful the US", which is acceptable to impact rental income growth.

Firms worthy hundreds of billions of pounds person been quitting the London Stock Exchange for the US implicit the past fewer years, prompting concerns implicit however charismatic the UK for investment.

These see Cambridge-based microchip elephantine ARM Holdings, which present sells its shares successful New York, and Paddy Power's proprietor Flutter.