The Slow Unlisting of London
Why the U.K.’s capital markets are losing their edge
London’s listings are shrinking while its rules are loosening.
And in the race to attract capital, the City keeps showing up to a gunfight with a butter knife.
This week, AstraZeneca joined a growing list of British multinationals quietly shifting their focus westward.
It will keep a London listing for now, but it’s moving its shares directly onto the New York Stock Exchange.
The symbolism couldn’t be clearer.
The headlines frame this as diversification.
In truth, it’s migration.
AstraZeneca’s U.S. business already represents 43% of revenue.
By 2030, it’ll be half.
Nearly a quarter of its shareholders are American.
Liquidity follows relevance, and right now, relevance lives on Wall Street.
London’s regulators see the problem.
Their response? Rewrite the rulebook.
The new “commercial companies” category scraps decades of listing safeguards. Founders can now retain dual-class voting rights indefinitely.
Historical revenue track records are no longer required. And major related-party transactions can proceed without a shareholder vote.
It’s marketed as modernisation. But it reads like desperation.
Because this isn’t just about rules.
It’s about gravity.
Capital is a magnet, and the U.S. still holds the largest magnetic field on Earth.
That’s why even companies with British roots are leaning toward New York to trade among peers that command global attention and institutional liquidity.
The FTSE 100 has gained 58% over the past decade.
The S&P 500 is up 250%.
Cyclical outperformance? No.
Structural superiority? Yes.
At North Tech Capital, we’ve been long mega-cap tech since August 2024.
Not as a trade, but as a statement of conviction.
Because while London debates how to keep companies listing, the U.S. keeps building the companies everyone wants to own.
Microsoft. Apple. Nvidia. Oracle. Meta.
Firms so embedded in the global economy that they are the market.
They don’t need listing reforms or liquidity incentives.
They create liquidity by existing.
So when regulators talk about making London “competitive” again, we hear something different.
We hear the sound of a market chasing validation rather than vision.
We hear policymakers trying to legislate relevance back into existence.
And we can’t help but think—markets, like companies, can’t reform their way to greatness.
They have to earn it.
For investors, this is the real takeaway: the structural premium for owning U.S. assets isn’t a bubble. It’s the reward for being the world’s centre of gravity.
That’s why we stay long mega-cap tech.
Because it’s not just about growth. It’s about staying where capital wants to live.
London’s problem isn’t regulation.
It’s relevance.
And relevance, once lost, is hard to list again.