Delisting won't affect operations, customers, strategy or financial position - Tom Glocer

“Unification would benefit shareholders by creating a single deep, global pool of liquidity and a simpler, more transparent capital structure,” he said in a message to the company’s 52,000 staff.

“Our shares are currently listed on four different stock exchanges [London, New York, NASDAQ and Toronto], which has fragmented the trading in our shares and deterred certain large global investors from buying our shares. Unification would also reduce costs and complexity across the company.

“You might fairly ask did we not anticipate when we announced the structure in 2007 that a DLC [dual listed company] would split the trading in our shares and carry a cost and complexity burden? We did, but we believed that these disadvantages would be outweighed by retaining and attracting an active following of investors in the UK. Unfortunately, things have not worked out that way. Over the past two years the percentage of shares held by UK active shareholders has declined from 45% of Thomson Reuters PLC to 12%, and North American investors now own 64% of PLC shares. Overall, UK shareholders now represent only 5% of our consolidated shareholder base. In these circumstances, it is now far better to unify our structure to offer a single, deep pool of liquidity to global investors.”

Glocer encouraged staff who hold Thomson Reuters shares to vote for the change at shareholder meetings scheduled for 7 August. He said shareholder meeting materials and proxy forms will be available in early July.

Following unification, all Thomson Reuters shareholders will have the same economic and voting interests in the company as they do under the current DLC structure, Glocer said.

“Our commitment to customers, employees and other stakeholders in London, the United Kingdom and Europe is unchanged by where we list our shares. London is a vital global capital for the markets we serve and home to more than 5,000 of our employees.

“The Founders Share Company has indicated it will support unification as this will in no way diminish our adherence to the Reuters Trust Principles.” ■