Tui to leave London Stock Exchange and move to Frankfurt in fresh setback for City

TUI shareholders have voted to quit a listing on the London stock market and move to Frankfurt in the latest postbrexit blow to the Square Mile.

Investors overwhelmingly backed a resolution to cancel its premium listing on the London Stock Exchange, with 98.35pc voting in favour of the move.

Tui will upgrade its listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange as part of the shake-up, giving it a more prominent position in the MDAX 50, Frankfurt’s version of the FTSE 250.

The decision to end its presence on the UK stock market is because of less frequent trading of Tui shares in London.

Three quarters of purchases and sales of Tui shares are conducted on the German market, with the rest in the UK.

Mathias Kiep, the Tui finance chief, told investors at the company’s annual meeting that shifting to Frankfurt was in the “best interests of shareholders and the company”.

He said: “Share ownership and liquidity of the Tui share on the stock exchanges have increasingly shifted to Germany.”

Tui is among a raft of companies set to exit the London stock market amid wider fears about the health of the market. Building materials company CRH, Flutter Entertainment and packaging supplier Smurfit Kappa are all considering a secondary listing outside of London or a complete market exit.

The Government has proposed a series of reforms in an effort to try to prevent companies from moving, including easier listing rules, but they are yet to be finalised or made law.

Delphine Currie, a Reed Smith partner, said more Uk-listed companies would follow Tui out the door because of the uncertainty. “Until people have certainty about what’s going to happen ... we’re still going to see people looking to other markets,” she said.

Tui was created through a merger of several German and British travel brands in the late 1990s. These included Thomas Cook and Thomson Travel.