The Irish Stock Exchange doomsayers were given another boost this week as Diageo became the latest company to drop its listing on what is now known as Euronext Dublin.
The Guinness owner aims to remove itself from the Dublin and Paris stock exchanges by the end of May, pending regulatory approval. In truth, that approval is a fait accompli.
Diageo is the latest in a line of firms to leave the market here: CRH is in the process of doing so as it seeks a deeper investor pool in the US, while Greencore and C&C have both upped sticks in recent years. Combine those with the loss of Green Reit and Hibernia Reit to acquisitions, and speculation about Paddy Power owner Flutter’s future trading home, and it’s grim times for the Dublin market.
Diageo isn’t like the others though. The company’s shares haven’t traded here for many years. It may be a €32 billion business but, according to the Euronext Dublin website, it last traded on the Irish Stock Exchange on March 27th, 2002. Yes, 21 years ago. In short, this is hardly a blow to the market’s day-to-day business, and the administrative costs associated with maintaining a listing that goes unused make cutting it an easy decision for any company. Indeed, one wonders why it didn’t happen earlier.
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The symbolism though, is strong. Apart from the visual of yet another company pulling its shares from the market, it also is another loosening of the ties between Diageo and Ireland. Sure, anyone who gets off the train at Heuston Station can see the scale of the operations in Dublin, but there is no getting away from the fact that what was once an Irish champion company is now primarily Irish in branding terms only.
That isn’t a bad thing – Diageo’s scale has opened new markets to Guinness, Baileys and a host of other products to great success. But we’re now a very long way from the days of the Lady Patricia and Miranda Guinness running back and forth across the Irish Sea.
