What Happens to the Company Secretary’s Role After a Delisting?
Glenn Oborne, Director at Ingen Partners
Over recent months, a growing number of businesses have announced plans to leave the London Stock Exchange.
The circumstances vary; some are moving their secondary listing elsewhere, some have concluded that the cost and complexity of remaining public are no longer justified and others are being acquired and taken private.
My own review identified 29 such situations announced during 2026 so far, including 12 voluntary departures such as Flutter Entertainment and Ferguson Enterprises, and a further group of agreed or proposed takeovers such as Just Group and John Wood Group. The precise number will change, and people may draw the boundaries differently, but the direction is difficult to ignore.
For company secretaries working in listed businesses and looking to prolong or safeguard their careers, there are a couple of practical questions that need to be answered:
Are my skills and experience transferable in other markets?
Am I going to get the same job satisfactions from a non-listed company?
The listed company secretary has traditionally operated within a well-defined, albeit broad, framework. Although no two jobs are the same, certain core responsibilities consistently feature: board and committee governance, market announcements, shareholder meetings, regulatory compliance, corporate reporting and managing relationships with advisers. All require specialist knowledge developed through the repeated cycles of a listed business.
Those skills remain valuable. A delisting does not make them redundant, nor does it automatically signal redundancies within the department, but it can change the context in which the department operates.
A private company will have fewer public-market obligations, if any at all, but it is not necessarily a simpler organisation. Reporting to the market may be replaced by more detailed reporting to private-equity owners, lenders or a smaller group of influential shareholders. Annual governance cycles can give way to a more immediate focus on performance, investment decisions, financing arrangements and an eventual exit.
The direction a business takes following a delisting will vary significantly depending on what prompted the corporate action. At the sharper end, new owners may be looking to cut costs and push towards another transaction. There may be a short-term requirement for a company secretary to remain and assist with onboarding, but these responsibilities are often absorbed by other departments.
Alternatively, a business may be merging with another listed company. In that case, there are often more long-term opportunities as teams merge and the challenging task of designing the new corporate structure is tackled by the company secretarial team.
In most instances, the new environment in which a company secretary finds themselves following a delisting will call for a slightly different range of capabilities.
One of the most frequently required is a stronger understanding of ownership and capital structures. Private-equity arrangements, shareholder agreements, reserved matters, management incentive plans and debt covenants all shape how decisions are made. The company secretary does not need to become the corporate finance adviser, but an understanding of the commercial purpose and practical consequences of these arrangements is increasingly useful.
Another is the ability to support a board through change, rather than simply through an established governance calendar. A delisting or takeover may involve a new board, different reporting expectations, revised delegations and a shift in the balance between oversight and execution. Someone needs to make that transition coherent and plot a path through it, finding some sense of order in the chaos.
There may also be an opportunity to become more involved in the governance of the wider organisation. Listed-company work can understandably concentrate attention at plc and board level. In a private setting, the role may extend further into subsidiary governance, decision-making authorities, contractual commitments, risk processes and the way information moves through the business.
From my experience of dealing with company secretaries, opinion on this work is markedly split. Only recently, I spoke with one professional who told me they found this [private setting] side of the role incredibly boring. At the recent CGI conference, however, I spoke animatedly with two very experienced company secretaries who passionately defended it. They argued that it gives you a proper understanding of how a business works and where decisions are made on a day-to-day basis.
More often than not, there is life in the role after a company delists. The question for a company secretary is whether that role interests them and offers meaningful scope to develop their career.
For the time being, I do not think someone following the traditional listed-company career path needs to be concerned that their job is immediately at risk. The reality, however, is that delistings are outstripping the pace at which new issuers are entering the London Stock Exchange.
That leaves listed company secretaries with a question worth answering now: can I see myself in a role outside a listed business?
If the answer is no, there may need to be an acceptance that, should the market continue in a similar vein, competition for listed-company opportunities will increase. This is already influencing how businesses approach company secretary recruitment and how candidates position their experience. Serious thought will need to be given to how to become indispensable – or, at the very least, how to stand out from the crowd.
If there is an appetite for a role outside the listed world, the position is more encouraging. The governance skills developed in a public company remain highly valuable, but they may need to be complemented by a broader commercial understanding and a willingness to work beyond the familiar listed-company cycle.
A delisting does not necessarily diminish the company secretary’s role. It may, however, expose how narrowly or broadly that role has been defined. For those willing to add another string to their bow, it could prove less of an ending than a change in direction.
https://www.roundgovernance.co.uk/contact
Whether you are a company secretary reassessing your next move, or a business navigating the governance implications of a delisting, Ingen Partners can help. As a specialist governance recruitment and consultancy firm, we work with listed, regulated and growing organisations to find the right people and the right structures for what comes next. Get in touch to discuss how we can support you.
Glenn Oborne is a director at Ingen Partners, a specialist governance recruitment and consultancy firm supporting listed, regulated and growing organisations.
A note from Kerry Round, Founding Director at Round Governance Services
Thank you, Glenn, for this thought-provoking piece.
We often think it won't happen to us — until it does. In my own experience, when Songbird Estates plc went through a takeover and subsequent delisting, it really did mean the end of an era as I knew it.
His point about governance skills evolving rather than disappearing is spot on — but it also got me thinking about the other side of that moment: the organisation itself.
A delisting rarely marks the end of good governance. If anything, it's often when governance matters most. New ownership structures, new reporting lines, a board finding its feet — these are exactly the moments where the right support makes the difference between a smooth transition and a costly one.
This is where we spend a lot of our time at Round Governance. In the weeks and months after a delisting, we work alongside boards and leadership teams to navigate that shift — practical, hands-on guidance for exactly the moment the familiar public-company framework falls away and something new needs to take its place. Sometimes that's supporting a board through a change in composition. Sometimes it is helping design governance arrangements fit for a private structure. Sometimes it's just being a steady, experienced pair of hands while the dust settles.
If your organisation is approaching or has just been through a delisting, we’d love to chat with you.