Ashtead Group PLC (LSE:AHT) underwhelmed with plans to switch its primary listing to the US on Tuesday as a poor set of results clouded the news.
Shares fell 12.4% to 5,492p in the wake of the two updates, placing Ashtead firmly ahead among the FTSE 100’s biggest daily losers.
Though Ashtead pointed to the prospect of “enhanced overall liquidity” through a move to the US, the assurances were not enough to overshadow a separate guidance downgrade.
Revenue growth was set to come in between 3% to 5% this year, against 5% to 8% as previously guided, after a 2% uptick in the first half, the industrial equipment rental firm said.
“The construction market has seen weakness driven by the higher interest rate environment lasting longer,” eToro analyst Adam Vettese highlighted.
“This has in turn hurt used equipment sales and higher depreciation costs have hit Ashtead’s numbers.”
In terms of Ashtead’s primary listing switch, analysts noted the move had widely been anticipated anyway.
“It was always a question of ‘when’ not ‘if’ Ashtead would move its main stock listing to the US,” AJ Bell’s Dan Coatsworth commented, adding “profit warnings from Ashtead aren’t common”.