Foreign Investors Hold 66% of UK-Listed Shares, According to the Research

According to a London market Research that reveals a rapid fall in domestic ownership by British shareholders; foreign investors now control 66 percent of UK-Listed shares, up from 64 percent in 2019.Europeans have raised their shares in businesses listed on the London Stock Exchange the most in the previous two years, outperforming US investors and attracting growing interest from Chinese funds, according to Orient Capital, an investor relations business.

British pension funds currently control barely 2% of the London stock market, following a dramatic fall in recent years.In 2013, British pension funds controlled 8% of the value of London-listed shares, but this has fallen by three-quarters in the past eight years.

US investors, notably US mutual funds, were the top holders, with US mutual funds now owning more UK shares than UK unit trusts.“Large multinationals whose activities span every continent and compete with global competitors wherever they are listed dominate the UK stock market, as they do leading stock markets throughout the world,” said Alison Owners, global chief executive of Orient Capital.

“There is consequently no sense for investors to evaluate only firms that are listed in their native country,” she explained.Following a succession of only moderate protests by shareholders in response to charges of exorbitant compensation and dangerous company behavior, efforts to impose corporate governance norms on UK-based firms have come under assault.Campaigners for corporate governance have claimed that increased diversity of ownership permits board directors to avoid criticism when they are exposed to votes at annual general meetings, leading to calls for worker representation on boards.