Flutter Entertainment PLC (LSE:FLTR) has revealed that it is considering a secondary listing of its shares in the US and the option to pursue, as a second step, a primary US listing - one of the criteria for access to important US indices.
Based in Dublin, the business was formed by the merger of Paddy Power and Betfair but increasingly its revenue is coming from its US business FanDuel, which has become the group's largest revenue generator.
"The board has reached a preliminary view that an additional US listing of Flutter's ordinary shares will yield a number of long-term strategic and capital market benefits," the FTSE 100-listed company said in a statement.
These benefits include access to much deeper capital markets and to new US domestic investors, it added.
Flutter said it would start shareholder consultation immediately and in the event of broad support this would supersede a possible listing of a minority stake in FanDuel.
News of Flutter’s plans will not be well received in Whitehall where prime minister Rishi Sunak has been desperate to keep tech companies listed in London and based in the UK.
The PM has been criticised in some quarters for a plan to relax UK listing rules to allow ARM Holdings, the world leading chip maker, to float in London when it is sold by Japanese owner Softbank.
Last week, Sunak received another blow when AstraZeneca PLC announced that a new £320mln factory would be built in Ireland instead of the northwest because of the low taxes there and a ‘discouraging’ rate in the UK.