Flutter Entertainment is the latest of several UK and European companies planning to gamble on a brighter future on Wall Street.
ADVERTISEMENTThe London Stock Exchange (LSE) is facing another blow with gambling giant Flutter Entertainment’s shareholders voting for the company to set up its primary listing in New York, rather than London.
Flutter Entertainment is the parent company for several well-known betting and gaming companies such as Sportsbet, Tombola, Betfair, Paddy Power, Junglee Games, Sisal, PokerStars, FanDuel and more.
The company previously had its primary listing on the LSE, with only an additional listing on the New York Stock Exchange, where it started trading on 29 January.
CEO Peter Jackson said then: «With our NYSE listing effective today, this is a pivotal moment for the Group as we make Flutter more accessible to US-based investors and gain access to deeper capital markets.
«We believe a US primary listing is the natural home for Flutter, given FanDuel’s #1 position in the US, a market which we expect to contribute the largest proportion of profits in the near future.»
Flutter had earlier hinted it might shift its primary listing to the US in the near future.
The company’s investors voted 98% in favour of the US move, at its annual meeting held on Wednesday. The move is expected to happen by the end of May.
Why are so many UK and European companies moving to the US?
In recent months, several companies apart from Flutter, such as building materials company CRH, packaging company Smurfit Kappa and semiconductor giant Arm Holdings have announced plans to move to the US. Companies such as travel mogul Tui, and Shell are also likely to follow, currently exploring options to do the same.
One of the main reasons for this is due to a much broader range of capital, investors and liquidity.
This in turn also turns to more opportunities, such as tapping into new markets. Investors are also likely to extend more capital to a company once it has been established for a few years in the US market, which is what Flutter and other companies are trying to do at the moment.
The New York Stock Exchange vice chairman John Tuttle told Euronews: «No matter how you look at the data, the United States is the deepest pool of liquidity and capital in the world, which has the broadest investor base. It has a lot of analysts and investors that are focused on growth, not just dividends and value.»
Furthermore, both UK and European laws have tightened considerably in the past few months, with regards to the environment and sustainability, causing oil and gas companies, as well as other high-emissions firms to feel distinctly unwelcome.
Companies such as Shell have gone on record to say that it feels undervalued in the UK, compared to the US, and has also said that US investors have a more positive attitude towards fossil fuel companies.
