Ashtead’s wake-up call: Equipment company’s decision to switch listing to New York is a big blow to the city, says ALEX BRUMMER

There is no hiding the fact that the loss of Ashtead’s primary listing in New York will be a blow.

The equipment rental group, listed in London since 1986, has quietly achieved an attractive £24bn valuation by setting a record for expansion.

Since Ashtead acquired Sunbelt Rentals in 1990, adding to several other purchases in the United States, it has looked across the Atlantic for growth and this year projects 98 percent of its operating profits will come from there.

However, his defection to the United States is a bad precedent. Ashtead may seem like an exception in that much of its profits come from across the Atlantic.

But there are plenty of other London-listed companies – notably large natural resources groups such as Rio Tinto, Anglo American and Glencore – that could say the same.

The rental group maintains that a listing on Wall Street will provide greater exposure to US investors and improve the liquidity of its shares.

There is truth in this. British investors, particularly pension funds, share most of the blame.

British taxpayers receive a generous tax subsidy for investing money in pensions. The UK’s retirement savings, at £1.12 trillion, are the third largest in the world.

Unfortunately, fund managers too often choose the S&P 500 over the FTSE 350. If Chancellor Rachel Reeves could push through the promised reforms, it would be easier to direct British savings towards growing businesses and infrastructure.

Ashtead’s press release omits an important factor behind its move. America offers top executives the chance to reap rewards beyond the dreams of greed. It has a totally different and more positive approach to wealth and wages than Britain.

Attitudes in the UK towards business do not improve when the Government talks non-stop about workers.

That doesn’t mean it’s all over for UK plc. The long-awaited arrival of creative group Canal+ to London is a significant gain for the creative sector.

The long list of Golden Globe nominees is a testament to its strength in depth. It is appalling that creative companies, such as ITV, are not valued as they should, given the country’s productive strength.

Other IPOs, such as that of Singapore-based fast fashion group Shein, are on the way. With the right stimulus, the project would include De Beers and Unilever’s ice cream division. Britain should also fight to keep online banking group Revolut in London.

Landing the biggest fish and keeping Shell and Rio anchored here will only happen if our pension trustees embrace the internal market. They need to commit to tripling or quadrupling the allocation of funds to big British stocks.

water slide

Any bailout for Thames Water should rely on the private sector.

Chief executive Chris Weston is wrong to suggest the breakup, suggested by potential bidders Covalis Capital and Suez, would be a distraction.

It is clear that corporate spin-offs have improved the performance of listed companies such as pharmaceutical group GSK.

It is true that the Thames, with its appalling sewage record and £16bn mountain of debt, is in a dire state.

Separating Thames Valley customers from London would make the scale of the problems more manageable.

A substantial price increase will be necessary if the necessary investment in better pipes, exhaust ducts and anti-pollution can be made.

But consumers should never be asked to pay for financial engineering, ever-increasing rewards for low-octane executives, and distributions to investors in distant tax havens.

Brighter note…

Sharon White has kept the peace since stepping down as chairman of John Lewis.

The former senior civil servant and regulator sounded a note of disappointment at the Labor Party’s sombre tone when she appeared before the city’s big guns and publishers at the Financial Times Business Book of the Year ceremony at the spectacular Peninsula Hotel in the heart of London. The venue is a tribute to international investment in the UK.

White called for optimism and urged action on links between Oxford and Cambridge, changes to higher education, a more professional approach to competition and reform of post-privatisation regulators.

The work of AI pioneers, chronicled in the winning book Supremacy: AI, Chat GPT And The Race That Will Change The World by Parmy Olson, will have an important role to play.