Pearson's largest investor says the publisher should switch listing to US

Pearson’s largest investor has said the education publisher should switch its listing to the US to improve shareholder value. 

Christer Gardell, managing partner and founder of Cevian Capital, told Bloomberg: “Pearson is a US company with the majority of sales and executives there. It’s only due to historical reasons it is still listed in the UK” adding “to change the listing is an easy and effortless way to increase the value of a company". 

Cevian has a Pearson stake of more than 12%. Earlier this year it successfully pressured Dublin-based building materials group CRH Plc to move its primary listing from London to New York. 

Over a quarter of Pearson’s stock is held by US investors, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

A spokeswoman for Pearson told Bloomberg the company was “proud of our London listing and the access that it provides for investors around the world". She added that Pearson also has an American depositary receipt listing in the US. 

Bloomberg reported that in 2022 Pearson earned 69% if its £3.8bn revenue in North America, where it is a major player in the college textbooks market and is now expanding into digital education services, such as the recently launched Pearson+. By contrast, just 11% of its revenue was from the UK. 

“As most of the competition is based in the US, we see an upside to the share of 30% to 40% from a relisting,” Gardell said. “That’s a significant amount of shareholder value, so we expect the board and the management to look into this in a serious manner and to prioritise the issue.” 

Pearson’s c.e.o. Andy Bird is retiring in the new year . Omar Abbosh will succeed him in early 2024.