Cloud data specialist Wandisco becomes the latest UK company to plot an additional US listing
- The AIM-listed company is headquartered in both Sheffield and California
- The announcement follows similar moves from Arm and CRH last week
Cloud data specialist Wandisco is the latest UK company to announce plans to list its shares in the US in a bid to attract higher valuation.
The company, which is headquartered in both Sheffield and San Ramon, California, and is listed on the London junior market, has confirmed it is in “the early stages of proactively exploring” an additional US listing.
It comes just days after Cambridge-based chip designer Arm announced it would favor Wall Street over the city for its £50bn public offering and building materials company CRH made plans to move its shares to the US.
‘Big data’ company Wandisco is one of many British companies looking to the US to list their shares
Last month, gambling giant Flutter Entertainment launched a consultation with shareholders on the FTSE 100 about a possible additional US listing.
Wandisco operates all over the world, but North America is the largest market in terms of revenue.
“As a technology company with two headquarters in the UK and US, WANdisco has long expressed its intention to consider additional listing of its common stock in the United States,” the company told investors today.
“The company can confirm that it is at an early stage to proactively explore this option.
“The company also confirms its continued commitment to the London Alternative Investment Market and to retaining the current UK AIM listing.”
The news comes after a report from Sky News over the weekend indicated that Wandisco has hired bankers from Evercore Partners to prepare for a New York listing.
The dual listing was first proposed by CEO David Richards in 2017.
Wandisco shares were 0.5 percent higher at £13.24 in morning trading on Monday. They are up more than 400 percent in the past year.
Joshua Raymond, director of online investment platform XTB.com, said Wandisco’s move was prompted by the search for a higher valuation.
‘Stock market listings are about price stability and valuations. If companies believe they can get higher valuations in markets of similar repute, it’s no surprise they’ll take that strategic move,” he noted.
Raymond did admit that London had lost some of its attractiveness in recent years.
“It is clear that the attractiveness of the UK market has lost some of its appeal in recent years following last year’s car accident, the bureaucratic red tape before Brexit and the instability at the heart of the government,” he added.
“London has long been seen as a major financial center and I don’t think the loss of these big firms to the US because of their stock exchange listing will change that.”
Victoria Scholar, head of investment at interactive investor, said one of the biggest hurdles for the UK market remains the struggle to attract tech companies.
While the FTSE 100 was relatively resilient last year, thanks in part to the shortage of tech stocks, this has long been a point of criticism and meant the UK large-cap index missed out on the gains made in the US by the tech boom before 2022.’ she said.
There have been some high-profile tech disasters in London, including Deliveroo’s disastrous IPO and THG’s share price fall, adding to the sense of caution towards the UK among tech companies deciding where to go public .’