With almost 90 per cent of profits coming from the United States and now renamed Ferguson, after its business there, it is appropriate to ask whether one day the old Wolseley plumbers merchant group might opt for a quotation on the New York Stock Exchange, where some comparable businesses enjoy higher multiples.
It will not happen any time soon, its management insists, even if some shareholders have raised the subject. There is already an American Depositary Receipt programme in the US, traded on an over-the-counter basis, and it is plausible that this could be quoted on the NYSE. In any event, the next set of results will be in dollars, therefore avoiding any fiddling around with currency effects.
In the US, Ferguson is continuing