Proactive Investors - Britain should stop taxing people for trading shares if it wants to help reignite its stock market, the chief executive of Sky Bet owner Flutter Entertainment PLC (LON:FLTRF) said.
Peter Jackson, the CEO of Flutter, argued the removal of the 0.5% stamp duty tethered on when buying shares could help the LSE grow, having recently faced an exodus of companies either being taken private or moving countries.
Flutter itself is one of the departing companies, with its shareholders having voted to move its primary listing to the US, citing the success of its Stateside sportsbook FanDuel and improved valuations as the reasons.
“There’s a simple change which the Government could make which will be to abolish stamp duty on share trading, which I think would have a big impact on the volume of shares that are traded,” Jackson argued.
Countries like Germany, Australia and the US don’t charge investors stamp duty to buy stocks and both Spain and France only charge fees for companies worth more than €1 billion.
Jackson added: “The more shares that are traded, if you’re an investor looking to take a position in the company, you’re more confident to take a bigger position because you need to get in and out without disturbing the share price.”
Flutter launched a secondary New York listing in what Jackson calls its “natural home” back in January and has since seen a “considerable uplift” in the number of shares being traded daily.
This morning, Flutter reported a widening of its first-quarter net losses from US$111 million in 2023 to US$177 million this year.
Despite the drop, US revenues, which largely comprise its subsidiary FanDuel, grew 32% and turned an adjusted profit of $26 million compared to a loss of $53 million in the previous year.
Shares slipped 3% to 15,705p as a result.