FTSE 100 reshuffle sees primary listing for Ireland’s CRH

Ireland’s largest publicly quoted company, CRH, will switch its primary stock exchange listing to London from Dublin this week.

The building materials company is set to enter the top end of the FTSE 100 index whenit reshuffles this week.

The quarterly reshuffle, taking place on Wednesday, will see CRH enter with a 100 per cent free float based on its current market capitalisation of £8.8bn.

The Dublin-headquartered company has had a listing in London for 40 years, but the move will give it access to a wider audience of investors and liquidity.

The Liberum Capital broking agency stated last month that CRH has an “unbroken record of dividend growth, dating back to 1970”. It said: “There is still muchuncertainty over the outlook for 2012, but due to US construction markets bottoming out we now see scope for upside surprises through 2012 with little downside risk. This is starting to make the CRH investment case interesting.”

CRH is likely to be joined in the FTSE 100 reshuffle by the Russian resource companies Evraz and Polymetal. Losers in the reshuffle will include the British satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat