Building giant CRH chooses US over London in blow to UK

Building materials giant CRH is planning to move its main share listing from the UK to the US, in a further blow to the London stock market.

The Ireland-based firm said North America now accounted for about three-quarters of its earnings and was likely to be "a key driver of future growth".

The move is likely to add to concerns that the UK's stock market is losing out to overseas rivals.

Reports suggest UK tech firm Arm may also list its shares in New York.

Chip designer Arm used to be a member of the FTSE 100 share index of top UK firms, but was bought by Japanese conglomerate Softbank in 2016.

Recently, Softbank has been looking to list Arm's shares after a planned sale to US firm Nvidia fell through.

The UK government has reportedly been lobbying hard for the company to choose the London stock market.

However, Bloomberg has reported that Arm is going to reject the UK and aim to list its shares in New York later this year.

A number of takeovers of firms listed in London has increased concerns that the UK market is declining in importance, and is failing to attract fast-growing tech firms.

CRH announced its plans to change its share listing as it reported strong sales and earnings for the past year.

The company - which supplies products such as asphalt, cement and paving - saw sales climb 12% last year to $32.7bn (£27.3bn) with earnings rising 13% to $5.6bn.

CRH said moving its main share listing to the US would bring "increased commercial, operational and acquisition opportunities" for the firm, and it would now consult its shareholders over the plans.

If CRH does decide to switch, it will be following in the footsteps of plumbing and heating product firm Ferguson which moved its main listing to the US last year.

Last month, betting firm Flutter said it was thinking of a US share listing, and earlier this week, the Financial Times reported that oil giant Shell - the largest company on the London stock market - had considered moving its shares to the US market in 2021.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said there were plenty of other companies in the FTSE 100 that could follow Ferguson and CRH.

"That's not a good look for the London Stock Exchange," he said.