Ferguson plans to cancel the secondary listing of its stock on the London Stock Exchange, company officials said Tuesday.
The plumbing and industrial supply distributor moved its primary stock listing from London to the New York Stock Exchange in 2022, and said at the time that it would maintain a secondary listing in London while it remained in the best interest of the company and its shareholders. Ferguson said in its latest earnings report in early May that it would initiate a review of that listing and could cancel it altogether.
Following that review, the company said this week, officials determined that canceling the London listing would eliminate complexity, satisfy its governance requirements, and align the stock listing with its North American headquarters, leadership and operations structures. Ferguson also noted that its liquidity on the NYSE “far outweighs” that of the London listing, and that its shareholder base is now “largely North American.”
Ferguson traces its roots to Virginia in the early 1950s, but it was acquired by U.K.-based Wolseley in 1982 and remained headquartered in Wokingham, England, until 2024, when it shifted its main office to Newport News, Virginia. The Wolseley U.K. business was sold in 2021.
“Since 2019, the company’s board of directors has considered North America to be the best long-term location for Ferguson and has worked methodically and transparently with shareholders on this transformative journey,” the company said in the statement.
The London delisting will take effect on the morning of July 20; the last trading day of Ferguson common stock on the LSE will be July 17.
Ferguson’s industrial operations ranked at no. 15 on ID’s latest Big 50 list.
