United Drug considers delisting from Irish exchange

The Irish healthcare services firm United Drug announced yesterday in a trading update that it is looking at delisting from the Irish Stock Exchange to move its main listing to the London Stock Exchange.

“The board believes that FTSE UK index inclusion would result in a further increase in UK and international investor awareness of United Drug.

“The company anticipates that if shares in United Drug were only listed on the London Stock Exchange [LSE] they should be eligible for the FTSE UK Index Series, provided the company maintains the premium listing of its ordinary shares on the London Stock Exchange and there is adequate trading liquidity on the LSE,” United Drug said in a statement.

“Consequently, the board is exploring the possibility of delisting United Drug shares from the Irish Stock Exchange and a further announcement will be made as appropriate.”

The Irish Stock Exchange issued a statement following the United Drug announcement noting that the company represents a 1.1% weighting of the Iseq.

United Drug’s trading update was otherwise bullish. It now expects adjusted diluted earnings per share for the year ending Sep 30, 2012, excluding the effects of one-off costs and current acquisition activity, to be 8%-10% ahead of last year.

The company said that much of its growth was coming from its international businesses which was now contributing 70% of group profits.

United Drug has three divisions: Sales, marketing and m&edical; healthcare supply chain; and packaging and speciality.

Revenues and profits were up on the same period last year in all three divisions.

The US division of packaging and speciality performed very strongly, although the European division was trading behind last year, the company said.

Over the past 12 months United Drug announced two strategic acquisitions: Watermeadow Medical Limited and Watermeadow Medical Consulting Inc and Pharmexx. The Pharmexx acquisition is expected to complete by Aug 31.

“These strategically important acquisitions will help to significantly grow our international footprint and further enhance our multi-country offering and capability as a provider of outsourced services to life sciences companies,” said United Drug