By Le Figaro with AFP
Posted update
The British manufacturer of microprocessors Arm, subsidiary of Japanese Softbankconfirmed to have set its sights on Wall Street for its future IPO, to the great displeasure of London which assures Friday wanting “pursue ambitious reformsof its capital markets. The UK government had been scrambling for months to get their tech gem listed on the London Stock Exchange, as the City, seeking to maintain its post-Brexit rank, lost ground to rivals in Europe.
«The UK continues ambitious reforms to the rules governing its capital markets“by relying on its place of”first investment center in Europe and second in the world“, argued the government Friday in a press release. He was reacting to the announcement, Thursday evening by Arm, of the choice of Wall Street for its future IPO. However, the company will keep its headquarters in England and could subsequently consider a second listing on the London Stock Exchange.
This content is not accessible.
Arm also announced new plans to increase its presence in the United Kingdom, with the opening of a site in Bristol (west of England) and continued growth in the workforce. But the news is a blow for the City, as building materials giant CRH on Thursday announced plans to shift its main listing from the British capital to the United States. Arm has been owned by SoftBank since 2016. The Japanese investment giant announced its intention to relist Arm after the failure in early 2022 of the sale of Arm to the American Nvidia due to “significant regulatory hurdles».
Since the effective entry into force of Brexit at the beginning of 2021, European markets have already started to compete for pole position with London in Europe, Amsterdam in terms of exchange value and Paris for the value of shares of listed companies. In an attempt to respond to European competition, the British financial regulator (FCA) has already relaxed the rules for IPOs, in particular by reducing at the end of 2021 from 25% to 10% the proportion of shares to be made available to the public. .
The British government had also announced in December post-Brexit reforms intended to stimulate the growth of its powerful financial sector, in particular to reverse certain measures which had been put in place in the wake of the 2008 crisis. And London had launched some months earlier the section of the reform relating to insurance companies, hitherto governed by the European directive Solvency II. In particular, the United Kingdom plans to relax capital requirements for companies in the sector, hoping to free up tens of billions of pounds for investments “greenand in infrastructure.
SEE ALSO – Microsoft presents its new search engine that integrates artificial intelligence