Irish companies abandoning Ireland/the ISEQ for Britain/the FTSE: why?

Seanchai

The Irish Times has the following story today: DCC considering FTSE listing.

In the article it says the following: 'Last year, United Drug and Greencore quit Dublin for listings in London while CRH, the largest company on the Irish market, moved its primary listing to the FTSE index.

The number of companies listed on the Irish Stock Exchange has fallen from 76 to 52 over the past decade.'

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Why is this happening? Why would companies with so many Irish shareholders abandon this state's economy? Can this state not impose some penalty on the dividend earnings (or something else) of the shareholders in question?

Scortho

Would it be due to increased exposure. As in the FTSE100 is printed in most daily newspapers while the ISE isn't. Also having a primary listing on what is probably the most prestigious stock exchange in europe? After all is the city of London not a bit more important than say the IFSC?

I wouldn't go as far as saying they're abandoning the states economy. They're still operating here, just potentially not on our stock exchange. From their website, it says they run Emo here in Ireland which has a 9 % share while in the UK they're subsidiaries make them the largest oil distributor. So their British position would be a lot more important to them than their Irish one. 68% of their operating profit is derived in Britain. 14% in Ireland.

Cookie_Monster

would you rather list on a tiny exchange with only 52 customers, or with a world famous, benchmark to all and far more popular exchange that's far safer by its size alone and is likely to be around for more than the next 10 years?