The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has drawn up a worst-case scenario for an LSE FTSE 100 listing flight to New York, warning that as many as 20 blue-chip companies could follow AstraZeneca in taking direct listings on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), leaving a £2bn hole in the Treasury’s stamp duty receipts.
The analysis, seen by The Sunday Times, names HSBC, BT, Vodafone, and Diageo among the companies at risk. Oil majors BP and Shell, and publishers Pearson and Relx, are also flagged because of the size of their existing American depositary share programmes.
The LSE FTSE 100 Listing Flight Risk
The concern centres on AstraZeneca’s decision to shift its primary US trading venue from Nasdaq to the NYSE. The Cambridge-based pharmaceutical group’s ordinary shares ceased trading on Nasdaq after market close on 30 January 2026, with NYSE trading commencing on 2 February 2026 under the ticker AZN, according to an AstraZeneca press release.
Prior to the migration, AstraZeneca’s American Depositary Shares on Nasdaq represented the company’s ordinary shares on a two-for-one basis, according to a Nasdaq exchange notice. The new structure required shareholders to approve terminating that ADR programme, migrating settlement from CREST to DTC, and adopting amended articles to enable issuance of depositary interests, according to an AstraZeneca SEC filing. Shareholders voted in favour at a general meeting on 3 November 2025.
AstraZeneca, valued at approximately £200bn, said the move was aimed at giving it ‘the flexibility to access the broadest possible available pool of capital’ and at harmonising trading of its shares across London, Stockholm, and New York. The company confirms it remains listed, headquartered, and tax resident in the UK, and its FTSE 100 membership is unaffected.
But the shift has already cost the Exchequer an estimated £200m, because share trading in London is no longer liable for stamp duty once ordinary shares settle via DTC. The LSE’s internal analysis projects that figure could reach £2bn if the other 19 companies identified follow the same path.
Stamp Duty Revenue Under Pressure
The scale of the potential loss becomes clearer against the broader revenue picture. Peel Hunt estimates that stamp duty on share transactions generated £3.3bn in tax revenue in 2023, equating to 0.3% of total UK tax receipts. Companies outside the FTSE 100 account for roughly 15% of that figure, meaning the index’s largest members represent the bulk of the take.
Charles Hall, Peel Hunt’s head of investment, said there is ‘a clear risk’ to stamp duty earnings ‘if more of our largest companies follow AstraZeneca’s lead in harmonising their listing.’
The LSE FTSE 100 listing flight risk has intensified calls to scrap the 0.5% levy altogether. A poll from investment platform Interactive Investor in February found three quarters of investors said abolishing stamp duty on UK shares and trusts would encourage them to invest more. The Guardian separately reported that Treasury officials were considering a stamp duty holiday of two or three years for newly listed companies ahead of the autumn budget, with the Financial Times first reporting the proposals.
AstraZeneca itself has moved to ease political tensions with a surprise April announcement that it plans to invest £300m in UK operations: £200m to revive a Cambridge megalab and a further £100m into its Macclesfield site, months after a dispute with the government over drug pricing.
Whether that gesture is enough to discourage other large-cap boards from reviewing their own listing structures is the question now facing the LSE and the Treasury. The exchange’s own worst-case analysis suggests the answer will arrive company by company, with BP and Shell the names to watch next.
