Time for Reeves to recognise reality: AstraZeneca has killed stamp duty on shares | Nils Pratley

3 hours ago7 min read

The resounding 99% shareholder approval for AstraZeneca’s plan to list directly on the New York Stock Exchange, while maintaining its London and Stockholm listings, isn't just a routine corporate maneuver—it's a stark verdict on the UK's financial competitiveness and a fatal blow to the anachronism that is stamp duty on share purchases. This ‘global listing for global investors,’ as CEO Pascal Soriot aptly termed it, exposes the multiple structural flaws in a tax that Chancellor Rachel Reeves can no longer afford to ignore.The core of the issue lies in the transaction's elegant asymmetry: US investors gain the frictionless access of a direct listing, potentially widening the investor base and lowering the company's cost of capital for future US acquisitions, while the London market avoids the symbolic catastrophe of a full departure from the FTSE 100. Yet, this very arrangement highlights the punitive disparity in transaction costs.An investor buying AstraZeneca shares in London pays a 0. 5% stamp duty; an investor executing the identical trade in New York pays nothing.In an era of hyper-liquid global capital, where basis points matter, this is a direct tax on the liquidity and attractiveness of the London market. The AstraZeneca move follows a well-trodden path of UK-listed giants seeking primary or enhanced listings stateside, a list that includes CRH, Flutter Entertainment, and Ferguson, all voting with their feet against the UK's transactional friction.The argument that stamp duty is a stable revenue stream for the Treasury—raising several billion pounds annually—is a myopic one, failing to account for the long-term erosion of the market's ecosystem, the diminished valuations for all UK-listed companies, and the corresponding loss in other tax revenues like corporation tax. When a blue-chip company the caliber of AstraZeneca feels compelled to engineer such a complex solution purely to bypass a domestic tax for its most important investor base, the policy has unequivocally failed.For Reeves, the political calculus is clear. The era of easy tax hikes is over; the focus must shift to growth.Abolishing stamp duty, or at the very least mirroring other major exchanges by applying it only to sales rather than purchases, would send a powerful signal that the UK is serious about reclaiming its status as a premier global financial centre. The alternative is to watch as more companies follow AstraZeneca’s lead, slowly but surely draining the lifeblood from London’s equity markets. The shareholder vote wasn't just about a listing; it was a referendum on a tax whose time has passed.

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#AstraZeneca

#New York Stock Exchange

#stamp duty

#UK finance

#tax reform

#global listing