Polling company YouGov (YOU) is considering a US listing, in yet another blow to the London Stock Exchange. Chair and former chief executive Stephan Shakespeare told the Financial Times that the group could move its primary listing to the US or establish a secondary listing there. Shakespeare said that the US “spends the most on marketing data” making it a “natural base”. YouGov recently acquired a large German market research group, increasing its size by about 50 per cent. JS
Read more: Can British stocks really live the American dream?
ITM exits joint venture as cost control drive continues
ITM Power (ITM), the embattled manufacturer of hydrogen electrolysers, says it has signed a non-binding heads of terms agreement to sell Motive Fuels, a joint venture alongside energy trading giant Vitol. The company was established with the aim of building a significant hydrogen refuelling business across the UK. ITM’s CFO, Andy Allen, said the sale “will allow us to devote our time, attention and capital resources on our core competencies”.
At its interim results in January, the group revealed that frequent product design changes had led to a series of costly write-downs, while an overly-optimistic approach to recruitment left it with “organisational overcapacity”.
It’s now trying to rein in these excesses to focus on becoming a volume manufacturer of electrolysers. Though shares are up 32 per cent in the past month, they’re still down more than 60 per cent in the past year. JJ
