CRH, Wise, and Others Have Delisted from the London Stock Exchange: Claim Is True

The claim is that CRH, Wise, and several other companies have delisted from or exited the London Stock Exchange. This is true, and it reflects a sustained, well-documented trend rather than a handful of isolated decisions.

The departures are concrete and verifiable. CRH, the world's largest building materials company, announced in March 2023 that it would move its primary listing from the LSE to the New York Stock Exchange; the transfer completed in September 2023 and its London listing was subsequently cancelled, per CRH's own press release. Flutter Entertainment — owner of Paddy Power and Betfair — completed a move of its primary listing to the NYSE in January 2024 and then delisted from London entirely. Smurfit Kappa delisted from the LSE in July 2024 following its merger with WestRock and a new primary NYSE listing, according to Reuters. Wise announced in November 2024 that it was considering delisting from London, citing low trading volumes and valuation disadvantages relative to US peers, and confirmed plans to proceed in early 2025.

The strongest version of a counterargument would be that these are a small number of large-cap outliers and that the LSE remains a major global exchange. That is worth taking seriously — the LSE still lists hundreds of significant companies, and not every firm is heading for New York. But this steelman breaks down against the aggregate data. According to FCA and LSEG data cited in multiple 2024 reports, the number of companies on the LSE's main market fell from around 1,100 in 2015 to under 800 by 2023 — a loss of more than 300 listings over eight years, with net delistings exceeding new listings for several consecutive years. These are not cherry-picked anecdotes; they are a structural pattern.

The trend extends beyond companies that were already listed. Arm Holdings, the UK-headquartered semiconductor giant, chose to list exclusively on Nasdaq in its high-profile September 2023 IPO rather than on the LSE at all, according to its SEC filing. That represents not just a departure but a bypass — a major UK-origin company deciding London was not worth considering as a venue. Shell's CEO Wael Sawan publicly acknowledged investor pressure to consider a US listing, as reported by the Financial Times in 2023, signalling that even FTSE 100 anchors are not immune to the conversation. The UK's share of global equity market capitalisation has fallen from approximately 10% in 2000 to around 4% by 2023, per FCA and LSEG data.

What is genuinely true in the broader debate is that some of this reflects global forces — US markets offer deeper liquidity and higher valuations across many sectors — rather than purely London-specific failures. Brexit is a contributing factor but not the only one. The claim does not overstate: it accurately names real companies and real events without asserting a cause.

The manipulation pattern to watch for here runs in the opposite direction: denial or minimisation. Expect to see the departures framed as isolated business decisions with no broader significance, or the aggregate listing numbers dismissed without engaging the data. When someone argues these exits are unrelated one-offs, ask them to explain why net delistings have exceeded new listings for several consecutive years and why the UK's share of global market cap has more than halved since 2000.