London Stock Exchange urges rapid UK reforms after Arm's snub

LONDON (Reuters) - The London Stock Exchange said on Friday that chip designer Arm's decision to pursue a U.S.-only listing this year rather than return to London's stock market showed Britain needed to speed up plans for regulatory and market reforms.

Arm, owned by Japan's SoftBank, is to pursue a U.S.-only listing this year, dashing the British government's hopes that the tech giant would choose London.

"Arm is a great British company and a world leader in their field which we continue to believe can be very well served by the UK capital markets," said Julia Hoggett, chief executive of London Stock Exchange plc, part of London Stock Exchange Group.

"The announcement demonstrates the need for the UK to make rapid progress in its regulatory and market reform agenda, including addressing the amount of risk capital available to drive growth."

Arm has not completely ruled out an eventual London listing and has said it intends to consider a subsequent IPO there in due course, without providing further details.

Arm, based in Cambridge in east England, was listed on the London market for 18 years until it was bought by SoftBank in 2016 in a $32 billion deal.

On Thursday, Dublin-based building materials group CRH had announced a decision to its primary listing from London to the United States.

The LSE owns financial news and information business Refinitiv, formerly a division of Thomson Reuters. It pays Thomson Reuters for news it distributes on Refinitiv terminals. Thomson Reuters holds a minority stake in LSEG.

(Reporting by Iain Withers, Editing by Louise Heavens and Jane Merriman)