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By Thyagaraju Adinarayan
LONDON, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Marks & Spencer's exit from the
FTSE 100 underlines how times have changed since the
blue-chip index was launched in 1984, when it was dominated by
British companies including household names like M&S, Cadbury
and House of Fraser.
Home-grown talent is increasingly absent from the FTSE, now
valued at $2.4 trillion, as failure to grow domestically or make
the cut internationally has seen companies disappear via
mergers, demotions, de-listing or privatisation.
MFI Furniture was among founding members of the index that
failed to survive after privately-owned IKEA entered the UK
market in the 1980s.
British Home Stores and Magnet & Southerns were other big
retail names that have either failed or been bought by other
companies.
These household brands have been giving way to big
corporations that make the bulk of their revenues outside
Britain. The most recent FTSE constituents pocket just 29% of
their revenue from the UK.
Marks & Spencer, which was the fifth-most-valuable
company at the FTSE's inception, now ranks just 111th by market
capitalisation -- too small to qualify.
M&S shares have lost about 40% of their value since January
2018 as the British high street stalwart has struggled with
competition in clothing and food, particularly online.
Other famous names at the risk of falling through the trap
doors soon are Morrison Supermarkets, Sainsbury's
and B&Q-owner Kingfisher, now sitting at the
bottom-end of the index.
Until recently, M&S, Sainsbury's and Tesco were
some of the 28 original members still in the FTSE.
New joiners in the most recent reshuffle included precious
metals mining firm Polymetal, Hikma, a generic
drugmaker earning the bulk of its revenue from the United
States, and aerospace and defence group Meggitt.
By sector weightings, banks & financial services, mining and
energy stocks now make up nearly 40% of the index, while retail
has shrunk to less than 3% from 8% in 1996.
Other major sectors to take a hit in the last two decades
were technology, media & telecoms, which together have shrunk to
just 7.5% from nearly a quarter in early 2000s.
Here's the sectoral break-down of the index since 1996:
How British retailers M&S, Sainsbury's have underperformed
the FTSE 100 index
(Reporting by Thyagaraju Adinarayan; Editing by Catherine
Evans)
