Smurfit Westrock shares fall on debut at New York Stock Exchange

Smurfit Westrock chief executive officer Tony Smurfit rang the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange on Monday morning to inaugurate trading in the newly merged stock.

The combined group operates in 40 countries and has a market capitalisation of more than $24bn (€22.1bn), large enough for inclusion in the highly liquid S&P 500 index of leading US shares.

The group will have a new primary listing on the New York Stock Exchange and a standard listing on the London Stock Exchange. Trading in the old Smurfit Kappa stock in Dublin ceased last week.

In New York on Monday, Smurfit Westrock shares opened at $47.40 each but drifted lower in afternoon trading, in line with the industrials heavy S&P 500 which edged lower as investors awaited a key inflation reading, commentary from Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell and the start of corporate earnings season for monetary policy cues.

In London, the new Smurfit Westrock shares opened at 3590 pence and closed to 3574 pence.

Ken Bowles, the chief financial officer of the newly formed paper packaging giant, said consumer demand is coming “along nicely” and at similar levels in the second quarter of 2024 to the growth seen in the first three months of the year.

Prior to Smurfit Kappa and Westrock completing their merger and commencing trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday, Smurfit Kappa had reported 3pc volume growth in Europe in the first quarter, and US-based Westrock noted a a rebound in demand.

“There’s no massive ramp up in anything, but it’s tipping along nicely in that sense, the world has not got itself back to an incredibly happy place but what we would have seen as we moved through the second quarter was very similar to the first quarter,” Mr Bowles told Reuters in an interview.