C&C surges on plan to switch share listing from Dublin to London

Shares in drinks group C&C surged nearly 5% on it announcing its intention to delist from the Irish Stock Exchange in favour of a single listing in London.

The cider and beer maker - chiefly known for its twin Bulmers/Magners cider brands and Tennent's lager - will remain registered and headquartered in Dublin and will still pay tax in Ireland. However, following its acquisition of British drinks distributor Matthew Clark and Bibendum last year, most of C&C's revenues, earnings and activities are in and generated from the UK.

The group, which is currently dual listed on Euronext Dublin and the premium segment of the London Stock Exchange, is seeking inclusion on the Ftse UK Index Series.

"[We have a] €1.5bn turnover, of which €1.3bn comes from the UK. So, that's a reflection of where the market is," said chief executive Stephen Glancey.

"We pay more tax in Ireland than some of the international guys that compete with us. We're an Irish company, we pay Irish taxation and we're headquartered in Ireland. We're just moving our listing to a much bigger market. Dublin is now Euronext and we don't have a lot of European shareholders. Our biggest proportion of shareholders are in the UK and all the stuff with Brexit impacts them, so it's also a matter of covering our options when Brexit happens. Equally, we want to attract new shareholders to the stock, which is important. The scale of the business makes sense to do it now," he said.

Speaking after the group's agm, Mr Glancey said C&C's planned new Dublin brewery, which will make its Five Lamps craft beer brand, is "not far away" from opening. He said there has been interest in selling the beer in London, but the group is in no rush to widen the product's market outside of Dublin.

C&C said, late last year, that it was investing in a new craft brewery in Dublin in order to boost brewing capacity for Five Lamps. The group is also set to introduce a 0% alcohol version of Bulmers cider next month.

In May, C&C reported a strong set of annual figures for the 12 months to the end of February, with strong rises in group revenue and operating profit and good performances of its flagship brands in core markets.

In a trading update coinciding with its agm, the group said it has made "a solid start" to its current financial year with trading in line with expectations.

The company said it its again targeting double-digit earnings per share growth this year.

"Thereafter, we will target earnings per share growth in a mid to high single digit range," said Mr Glancey.