The flood of UK companies crossing the Atlantic must be stopped
If Labour is serious about growth, then boosting the efficiency of the London Stock Exchange - which faces an existential threat - is crucial.
Ashtead is one of Britain’s biggest companies, listed on the London Stock Exchange’s premier FTSE 100 Index. With its HQ in the heart of the City in Cheapside, the industrial equipment hire giant is valued at around £23 billion and employs more than 20,000 staff worldwide.
So it’s a pretty big cheese - and a great success - in its industry. Yet, despite being founded in Ashtead, Surrey, in 1947 and listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1986, it's a company that most people will never have heard of until the last day or so.
And there’s a good reason for that: Ashtead now makes 98 per cent of operating profit in the US following its ambitious acquisition in 1990 of an American business, Sunbelt Rentals, and substantial expansion in the US since then. The reason Ashtead has hit the headlines is that the US chief executive, Brendan Horgan, has sent shivers through the City by announcing he’s planning to switch its primary listing to New York rather than London - and change its name to Sunbelt Rentals.