Shareholders vote to quit London Stock Exchange

The vote at an extraordinary general meeting in London was  97.4 per cent in favour of quitting the LSE. At a simultaneous EGM in Toronto the figure was 99.6 per cent. Fewer than 100 shareholders attended the London meeting, with a similar number in Toronto.

The Canadian vote was decided by Thomson's family holding company, Woodbridge, which owns about two-thirds of the outstanding shares in Thomson Reuters Corp and had already committed to vote in favour of the move.

It will also delist from NASDAQ, remaining on the main New York and Toronto exchanges.

The delistings are expected to take place on 10 September, subject to UK court approval. 

Shareholders in Thomson Reuters PLC are entitled to receive one Thomson Reuters Corp share for every PLC share they hold, while holders of American Depository Shares will receive six Thomson Reuters Corp shares per ADS.

Thomson Reuters, formed in 2008 when Canadian data publisher Thomson bought Reuters, has said it wants to simplify its capital structure and eliminate the persistent discount at which the London shares have traded to the Canadian shares.

The UK shares have traded at a discount to the Canadian shares since the April 2008 merger. The gap has narrowed to 2 per cent from 13.6 per cent before the company announced its plan in June to delist the London shares.

"I expect that a more straightforward capital structure will ensure that the focus of investors will remain firmly on the company itself and not on its capital structure," chief executive Tom Glocer told shareholders in London.

Not all shareholders agreed with the decision. "This country is a link to Europe. It looks like everything is going to shift to America and I'm a bit nervous about that," Allan Ferguson, who holds about 686 Thomson Reuters shares, told the London meeting. "I feel that we're just going to be another outpost."

Glocer has moved his base to New York from London, which remains the company's second-biggest base. Thomson Reuters made 58 per cent of its revenue in the Americas, 32 per cent in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 10 per cent in Asia last year.

Paul Julius Reuter opened his news and stock-quote service in London in 1851. It became a global news service and in 1984 became a public company with shares listed in London and New York.

Thomson Reuters says UK shareholders own only about a quarter of its London-listed shares, down from about 58 per cent in 2007, and hold only 5 per cent of the company's total outstanding shares.

Some analysts say London investors were influenced by memories of Reuters' poor performance during the last downturn, and were not convinced of the more defensive qualities of Thomson's products aimed at legal, health and tax professionals.

On Thursday, Thomson Reuters reported a better than expected quarterly profit helped by cost cuts, and said it expected 2009 revenue to grow as the financial industry recovered and banks started hiring again.

Credit Suisse, Bernstein and RBC raised their target price on the shares on Friday, but Jefferies downgraded the stock, saying it expected some UK shareholders to take profits rather than convert into Canadian shares. ■