Burberry to rejoin UK blue-chip benchmark after one-year absence

A year after losing its spot in Britain’s blue-chip benchmark, Burberry Group Plc is returning to the UK’s stock-market elite.

The luxury-goods maker, best known for its tartan-plaid trench coats, will rejoin the FTSE 100 Index later this month, index compiler FTSE Russell said Wednesday.

The promotion marks another chapter in a revival being led by Chief Executive Officer Joshua Schulman, who took the helm in mid-2024 when the London-based firm was struggling to return to its former glories.

Burberry lost its place in the FTSE 100 shortly after Schulman joined, but a rally of more than 70% under his stewardship has boosted the firm’s market value to about £4.6 billion ($6.2 billion), taking it back into the blue-chip gauge. The CEO is successfully refocusing the label on its British roots and better promoting its flagship outerwear products, helping it resist a wider downturn in demand for luxury goods.

“The return to the FTSE 100 will be an acknowledgment of the recovery being seen in brand heat and demand driven by the new strategic direction,” said Adam Cochrane, an analyst at Deutsche Bank AG.

Inclusion in the FTSE 100 has the potential to spur further demand for the shares from funds that track the index.

“Being part of the index broadens the company’s access to investors, specifically passive ones, which would support share price post-entry as investors rebalance their portfolios,” said Jelena Sokolova, an analyst at Morningstar Inc.

Burberry is one of two companies joining the benchmark in FTSE Russell’s latest quarterly review, the other being Metlen Energy and Metals Plc. They replace student accommodation provider Unite Group Plc and homebuilder Taylor Wimpey Plc.

Metlen, whose business includes renewable energy, natural gas trading and aluminum production, joins the gauge only a month after listing its shares in London and moving its primary listing from Athens. Its inclusion had been flagged in an indicative index review last week.

Taylor Wimpey exits the benchmark after a 22% year-to-date drop in its shares reduced the firm’s market value to about £3.4 billion. Unite Group leaves after a drop in its shares in the final minutes of Tuesday’s trading session pushed its market value fractionally below that of another FTSE 100 homebuilder, Persimmon Plc.

Taylor Wimpey and Unite are among seven stocks slated to be added to the FTSE 250 index of UK midcap stocks, according to FTSE Russell’s review. Others include Johnson Service Group Plc and Oxford Biomedica Plc. Those being deleted from the FTSE 250 include Asos Plc, Auction Technology Group Plc and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.