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FTSE 100 at 40 years old: how many of the original companies remain on the index?

Proactive

On Wednesday this week, it will be the 40th anniversary of the launch of the FTSE 100.

The index has, not surprisingly, changed a lot since it was conceived as a benchmark for the UK weighted to the market caps of its constituent companies.

It replaced the narrower FT30 as the main performance indicator for companies listed on London Stock Exchange, which had been used for nearly five decades beforehand, providing a broader benchmark.

Looking back to 1984, it does not look like many of the original 100 companies at launch (when the index was called the 'SE 100' before the FT was added to create the awkward-looking 'FT-SE 100' a few weeks later).

The original FT-SE 100 companies

  1. Allied-Lyons
  2. Associated British Foods
  3. Associated Dairies Group
  4. Barclays Bank
  5. Barratt Developments
  6. Bass
  7. BAT Industries
  8. Beecham Group
  9. Berisford (S. & W.)
  10. BICC
  11. Blue Circle Industries
  12. BOC Group
  13. Boots Co.
  14. Bowater Corporation
  15. BPB Industries
  16. British & Commonwealth
  17. British Aerospace
  18. British Elect. Traction Co.
  19. British Home Stores
  20. British Petroleum
  21. Britoil
  22. BTR
  23. Burton Group
  24. Cable & Wireless
  25. Cadbury Schweppes
  26. Commercial Union Assurance
  27. Consolidated Gold Fields
  28. Courtaulds
  29. Dalgety
  30. Distillers Co.
  31. Eagle Star
  32. Edinburgh Investment Trust (LSE:EDIN)
  33. English China Clays
  34. Exco International
  35. Ferranti
  36. Fisons
  37. General Accident Fire & Life
  38. General Electric (NYSE:GE)
  39. Glaxo Holdings
  40. Globe Investment Trust
  41. Grand Metropolitan
  42. Great Universal Stores 'A'
  43. Guardian Royal Exchange
  44. Guest Keen & Nettlefolds
  45. Hambro Life Assurance
  46. Hammerson Prop.Inv. & Dev. 'A'
  47. Hanson Trust
  48. Harrisons & Crossfield
  49. Hawker Siddeley Group
  50. House of Fraser
  51. Imperial Chemical Industries
  52. Imperial Cont. Gas Association
  53. Imperial Group
  54. Johnson Matthey
  55. Ladbroke Group
  56. Land Securities
  57. Legal & General Group
  58. Lloyds Bank
  59. Magnet & Southerns
  60. Marks & Spencer
  61. MEPC
  62. MFI Furniture Group
  63. Midland Bank
  64. National Westminster Bank
  65. Northern Foods
  66. P & O Steam Navigation Co.
  67. Pearson (S.) & Son
  68. Pilkington Brothers
  69. Plessey Co.
  70. Prudential Corporation
  71. RMC Group
  72. Racal Electronics
  73. Rank Organisation
  74. Reckitt & Colman
  75. Redland
  76. Reed International
  77. Rio Tinto - Zinc Corporation
  78. Rowntree Mackintosh
  79. Royal Bank of Scotland Group
  80. Royal Insurance
  81. Sainsbury (J.)
  82. Scottish & Newcastle Breweries
  83. Sears Holdings
  84. Sedgwick Group
  85. Shell Trans. & Trad. Co.
  86. Smith & Nephew Associated Co's.
  87. Standard Chartered Bank
  88. Standard Telephones & Cables
  89. Sun Alliance & London Insurance
  90. Sun Life Assurance Society
  91. Tarmac
  92. Tesco
  93. THORN EMI
  94. Trafalgar House
  95. Trusthouse Forte
  96. Ultramar
  97. Unilever
  98. United Biscuits
  99. Whitbread & Co. 'A'
  100. Wimpey (George)

The first index change was thought to be the removal of Eagle Star on its takeover by BAT Industries, and its replacement by the next largest approved company on the list, which was Charterhouse J Rothschild, according to a FT article in 1984.

Many subsequent changes have followed, with only around a quarter of the originals remaining.

Which original FT-SE companies remain?

Only 24 (or maybe 27 or perhaps 34 or 35, see below) of the original 100 companies remain listed on the FTSE 100. Below, we have used the names they held in 1984 and referenced what they did. For some, the nature of their business has evolved.

  1. Associated British Foods PLC (LSE:ABF) - Still a food producer but also owner of Primark
  2. Barclays PLC (LSE:BARC) - Banking
  3. British American Tobacco PLC (LSE:BATS) (BAT Industries) - Still in tobacco (just)
  4. BAE Systems PLC (LSE:BA.) (was British Aerospace) - Aircraft parts, munitions and defence
  5. BP PLC (LSE:BP.) (was British Petroleum) - Oil producer
  6. GSK PLC (LSE:GSK, NYSE:GSK) (Glaxo Holdings) - Pharmaceuticals
  7. Imperial Brands (Imperial Group) - Tobacco firm
  8. J Sainsbury Group PLC - Grocer
  9. Land Securities PLC - Commercial real estate investor
  10. Legal & General Group PLC (LSE:LGEN) - Insurer
  11. Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LSE:LLOY) - Bank
  12. Marks and Spencer Group PLC (LSE:MKS) - Retailer
  13. Pearson PLC (LSE:PSON) - Now in educational resources, pivoting from its publishing roots
  14. Prudential PLC (LSE:PRU) - Insurer
  15. NatWest PLC (Royal Bank of Scotland) - Bank
  16. Reckitt Benckiser (Reckitt & Colman) - Consumer goods producer
  17. RELX PLX (Reed International) - Specialist data and publishing, pivoting from being a recruitment firm
  18. Rio Tinto PLC - Miner
  19. Shell PLC (LSE:SHEL, NYSE:SHEL) - Oil producer
  20. Smith & Nephew PLC (LSE:SN) - Medical equipment manufacturer
  21. Standard Chartered PLC (LSE:STAN) - Bank
  22. Taylor Wimpey (was George Wimpey) - Builder
  23. Tesco PLC (LSE:TSCO) - Grocer
  24. Unilever PLC (LSE:ULVR) - Consumer goods producer
  25. Whitbread PLC (LSE:WTB) - Premier Inn hotels, pivoting from its brewing origins

It could be argued that Midland Bank and Ladbroke Group are included via HSBC Holdings PLC (LSE:HSBA) and Entain PLC (LSE:ENT), which respectively took them over in 1992 and 2017.

Likewise, Melrose Industries PLC (LSE:MRO, OTC:MLSPF) owns two original FT-SE names: Guest Keen & Nettlefolds (better known as GKN in recent decades) and Hawker Siddeley; Grand Metropolitan, meanwhile was merged with Guinness (which earlier bought FTSE original Distillers Co) to create Diageo PLC (LSE:DGE). Cable & Wireless was bought by Vodafone in 2012.

General Accident Fire & Life and Commercial Union Assurance are both founding parts of Aviva, via mergers with Commercial Union in 1998 and then with Norwich Union in 2000 to form CGNU, which changed its name to Aviva in 2002.

That would take the number to well over 30 of the 'SE 100' original members that are still part of the FTSE 100.

Great Universal Stores still exists with parts owned by Sainsbury’s and Experian (LSE:EXPN) PLC, two other current blue chips.

It is possible to argue for the inclusion of House of Fraser too, although it went bust and was snapped up from the administrators by Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct and now trading under the historic name again as Frasers Group PLC (LSE:FRAS). Similarly, Phoenix Group Holdings PLC (LSE:PHNX) owns Sun Life.

Down but not out

Similarly, while CRH PLC (LSE:CRH, NYSE:CRH) bought Tarmac it has since left the FTSE for New York.

While many of the original names have fallen into administration and not been rescued, some have just fallen out of favour with investors.

Hammerson, the property developer, and Johnson Matthey, the chemicals group, are still going but have dropped down into the FTSE 250 – so could return. Harrisons & Crossfield, since renamed Elementis, also now rests in the mid-cap index.

Rank Organisation, now Rank Group PLC (LSE:RNK) has fallen out of the 250, so its return any time soon is less likely. Ferranti was bought by TT Electronics PLC (LSE:TTG), another on the small cap list.

Burton Group was bought by Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia Group, and then by AIM-listed Boohoo Group PLC (AIM:BOO) when the latter fell into administration.

Most recent exits from the list include RSA Insurance (former Royal Insurance), which was taken over in 2020 by a pair of overseas rivals, a similar fate that explains the disappearance of most of the other names on the list too.