United Drug to delist in October

United Drug will delist from the Irish Stock Exchange on Oct 3 in order to have all its shares traded through the London Stock Exchange in a bid to gain admission to the FTSE UK Index.

The Dublin-headquartered pharmaceutical company flagged its intentions in its interim results on Aug 14.

United Drug hopes that by having all its stock traded on the London market, it will boost volumes and make it eligible for inclusion in the FTSE index. Most of the big investment funds tend to buy FTSE indices rather than individual stocks.

The company said most of its shareholders are international investors and most of its operations are based outside Ireland.

“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 LSE and that there is adequate trading liquidity of the company’s shares on the LSE,” United Drug said.

Chief executive Liam FitzGerald said: “We believe that the changes to the listing arrangements will increase the group’s attractiveness to a wider international investor base and are a natural progression for United Drug, given the international nature of the business.

“These changes will have no impact on the business operations of United Drug and United Drug will remain headquartered, incorporated and tax resident in Ireland.”

If the company meets the requirements needed for inclusion in the FTSE Index then it expects to be admitted to the FTSE All-Share index after the close of business on Dec 21.

Irish Stock Exchange CEO Deirdre Somers, said: “It is clear that this decision by United Drug is driven by the rules for inclusion in the FTSE UK Index Series, which require the majority of trading in a constituent company’s shares to take place in the UK.

“Approximately 90% of United Drug’s trading currently takes place on the Irish Stock Exchange. United Drug currently accounts for approximately 1.1% of the Iseq index.

“The index will be reweighted as appropriate when the company ceases to be a constituent.”