As major firms consider shifting their primary listings away from London, concerns grow over the future of the U.K.’s capital markets. Julianna Tatelbaum and Karen Tso asked Shell CEO Wael Sawan and LSEG CEO David Schwimmer to weigh in on the debate.

London

London's stock market is experiencing renewed debate over its global competitiveness, as prominent UK companies such as AstraZeneca and Shell reportedly consider shifting their listings to the United States. Shell's CEO highlighted the company's success in attracting US investors without moving its primary listing, while the CEO of the London Stock Exchange Group emphasized recent regulatory improvements and the market's international appeal.

Despite these reassurances, the trend of companies exploring US listings continues, with some citing access to larger pools of capital and potential valuation increases as motivating factors. However, the evidence for a valuation uplift remains inconclusive, and the FTSE's recent performance has provided some support for London's market standing.

What's gone wrong with London's stock market?

On that note, let's continue that conversation around whether London is losing its edge when it comes to listings. It's a debate we've been having a lot around the set recently. AstraZeneca, the biggest company in the UK, reportedly considering moving its listing to the US and with Shell, it came up again. The consideration of the company to move its listing stateside earlier in the year, the CEO whale, so on put the markets on notice, floating the idea that the bright lights of New York could be alluring, even though it wasn't a live discussion. We asked the CEO again earlier this morning if his tune has changed. We have been outperforming. We have been able to just stick to our own story. Do what just deliver on what we say we're going to do at Capital Markets Day. We use the old tagline, you can be sure of Shell, and part of that is just rebuilding confidence in this company, our ability to deliver time and time again. What we are also seeing is our US investors are buying into Shell. We have grown the investor base in the US significantly over the last two and a half years or so, and we're seeing that coming through ADRs in the US or even buying here on the footsie. And so we are attracting that liquidity. And on the back of that, we feel more and more confident that our message is getting through to those pools of capital that want to invest in this differentiated investment thesis that we have. We also spoke to the CEO of the London Stock Exchange Group, El Seg, David Schwimmer, and asked him to also weigh in on the debate and whether something's gone wrong in London. A lot of things are going right in terms of what's happening here in London, and we've had a very healthy, constructive discussion over the last several years that has led to a number of really productive changes in terms of the listing rules, the capital markets environment, the regulatory environment. We have made a bunch of changes. The FCA has made a bunch of changes the government has weighed in. There are a number of ongoing discussions around capital allocation by the pension funds. But I think, actually, the environment is stronger now than it has been in a long time. We're seeing that in capital flows. I was watching Lyle's comments. He said they're not considering a New York, a shift to the US. We and Shell and others don't have a problem getting access to US capital here. I think our shareholder base is roughly 40 percent US, and it's one of the benefits of London being the most international capital market in the world. A defence there from David Schwimmer. I think it's fascinating that you've still seen a steady stream of companies. I mean, obviously, Wise was one of the latest companies to decide to chase some sort of listings stateside. But the reality is, until you get a ton of IPOs listing here and successful ones, these questions are going to persist. Giving the UK market some cover has been the performance of the FTSE so far. It's been an extraordinary ride. If you think about recent years, it was very hard to mark higher on each 1,000 leg. It seems to be much more forthcoming stateside to see each barrier crossed in a timely manner. But for the UK market, it's been a very slow, steady motion in recent times until recently. And if you look at where we've travelled on the UK market versus the S&P 500, very similar direction, at least in recent months, providing some cover. I thought it was interesting to hear Wael Sawan address one of the allures of the US, which is access to greater pools of capital, access to US investors. And he said, we actually are able to lure US investors into our stock here in the UK, also via ADR. So he was making the point that that is not good enough reason to warrant a move to the US. The other thing here in question is whether companies that move from the UK to the US enjoy a valuation uplift. And the jury is out as to whether that is true. But that is often flagged as one of the two key reasons that a company would consider going to the US. They want to see a valuation uplift. Really hard to tell at this point, given how many cross-currents that there are around trade tariffs and individual sector moves.

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