Radical ideas needed after Arm wrestle
ARM is a semiconductor firm, which is so big that it has a part to play in everything we use which contains a silicon chip.
The literal ‘arm wrestle’ between the London and New York stock exchanges came out in favour of New York for the listing of Arm rather than London.
Why did Arm choose New York when it is a British company and London is one of the biggest stock markets in the world? Is this a sign London does not have the ability to raise capital in the same way that New York does?
Ultimately, when a company decides to move to a country for listing, this then means that the profits, intellectual property and net worth will eventually reside in the jurisdiction in which it is listed. Put another way, that company’s tax take will also fall into that jurisdiction.
Maybe, one of the reasons why the New York stock exchange is favoured over London stock exchange is because of the narrow range of investors in the London stock exchange. In London, the investors are predominantly very large pension funds, whilst in New York, the money comes from much more diverse sources hence those investors may be prepared to take greater risks.
The high liquidity in New York means it has a wider global group of investors. When looking at valuations, there is no doubt New York tends to be higher than that in the UK, but this then translates into a larger gap when you seek to raise millions of pounds.
When Sunak was Chancellor, he put forward Big Bang 2.0 in a bid to help deregulation and innovation within the London stock exchange in order to help London have a more worldwide focus casting its gaze on the far east and America rather than just looking at Europe. At the moment, these changes are just focused on helping small-cap companies seeking listings in London.
Maybe more radical ideas need to be implemented, though bear in mind the backdrop of the insolvency of the Silicon Valley Bank. It is only government policy that can lead it to a policy change to change the investment culture of the UK, if we are to try to match New York’s appetite for risk, rather than maintain the prudence of the Europeans.