A major company on the London Stock Exchange has reversed a potential departure for the US, in a huge boost to domestic stock markets.
Glencore, a mining firm with a £35bn valuation, said in February that it was exploring alternatives to London which were “better suited to trade our securities”, with New York a possibility for their primary listing.
However, during today’s financial report, chief executive Gary Nagle said: “London is where we are happy”. He added that Glencore “don’t believe there is a value-accretive proposition to move exchanges right now” despite “the scale and depth of US capital markets [being] unrivalled”.
A large part of the reason for the turnaround is uncertainty over whether Glencore would be included in the S&P 500 – the US equivalent of the FTSE 100, which Glencore currently ranks 26th in by market capitalisation. Additionally, there would have been “significant” costs associated with the move which the company appear to have decided would not be compensated for by a listing switch.
Glencore – which mines coal and copper ore primarily – staying in the UK will mark a big positive for the LSE, which has seen the likes of Flutter and Tui leave as well as several smaller firms being bought up or taken over by private or overseas rivals. Finance payments firm Wise is also aiming to leave.
However, the chief executive of London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), David Schwimmer, came out fighting against the narrative of companies leaving for better valuations earlier this year, offering data showing only 20 per cent of companies who left London for the New York Stock Exchange over the previous decade had resulted in shareholder benefits.
Mr Schwimmer reiterated those claims this week when speaking to Yahoo Finance and LSEG will perhaps feel vindicated in that assessment with Glencore’s U-turn.
In addition to announcing they would stay in London, Glencore revealed plans for a $1bn (£753m) cost-cutting drive and net losses of $655m (£493m) due to commodity prices decreasing and lower production levels.
Several hundred jobs will be lost in the push for savings, though these are expected across the global workforce of around 150,000. Net debt also rose to $13.5bn (£10.2bn), above the aim of $10bn. Shares in Glencore fell an additional 3.8 per cent in morning trading on Wednesday and are down 18 per cent in 2025 as a whole.
The company’s market capitalisation was around £40bn at the time they announced their review of a potential LSE exit, meaning a 12.5 per cent valuation loss since then.
