By Bethany Wales
Admiral Acquisition has become the latest company to announce it will leave the London Stock Exchange for New York, after buying US engineering business Acuren for $1.85bn (£1.48bn).
The special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), set up by investors with the sole purpose of buying out a private business, listed in London last May, but said it intends to move to the New York Stock Exchange in the coming months.
Admiral raised $550m in an initial public offering (IPO) last year, at a time when the popularity of blank-check firms was on the decline.
Sir Martin Franklin, the lead founder of the firm, is known as a pioneer of SPACs, having launched several others, including J2 Acquisition, which raised $1.25bn (£980m) in a London IPO in 2017.
Admiral’s move is the latest in a spate of foreign firms moving their listings overseas, with estimates suggesting the LSE has shrunk by around 25 per cent over the past decade.
In recent months, companies including TUI, Superdry and Flutter have all revealed plans to delist, with the CEO of oil and gas giant Shell also hinting a move could be on the cards.
Acuren, which provides mission-critical, regulatory mandated, non-destructive testing, inspection, engineering and lab testing services across a variety of industries, currently employs more than 5,500 people across the USA and UK.
Talman Pizzey, CEO of Acuren, said: “American Securities has been a great partner to Acuren.
“We’re looking forward to working with the Admiral team to support Acuren’s next phase of growth as a public company.
“The Admiral team’s successful track record of driving value creation for shareholders while providing great jobs for employees, across diverse businesses, particularly industrial services, is well aligned with our long term growth objectives.
“Our commitment to providing best-in-class services to our clients remains unwavering.”
