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Drugmaker Indivior plans to move its primary listing from London to New York and has begun canvassing shareholder support for the switch, in the latest blow to the UK equities market.
The move would bring several benefits, including attracting more US investors and, eventually, inclusion in leading stock market indices, Indivior said on Thursday alongside its full-year results.
The group, whose products include treatments for opioid use disorder and schizophrenia, said it would move the listing in the summer if it secured shareholders’ backing.
“This isn’t for me a testament of anything to do with the FTSE. It has to do with where Indivior’s growth and future growth is, which is disproportionately for us in the US markets,” said Mark Crossley, chief executive.
Three-quarters of investors would need to back the move.
“If the consultations indicate a strong level of support from shareholders, the group intends to put forward a formal resolution that would facilitate a primary US listing in the summer of 2024,” said Indivior.
Shares in the company, which was spun out of the consumer goods group Reckitt Benckiser in 2014, jumped almost 20 per cent in early trading, before settling up more than 16 per cent by 1pm in London.
Indivior is based in Virginia and makes about 85 per cent of its sales in the US. In June 2023, it began trading with a secondary listing on the Nasdaq.
Crossley said the prospect of moving its primary listing to the US reflected the business’s growing US investor base, as well as sales of Indivior’s products, “fuelled by the US opioid overdose epidemic”.
“There is momentum behind more US investors. With inclusion on US indices, that could unlock [more capital],” he said.
The move is a further blow to the UK stock market. Last year, British chip designer Arm opted for a US listing, while building materials group CRH, and plumbing business Ferguson have recently decided to list in the US. In January, Flutter, the gambling group that owns Paddy Power, said it planned to move its primary listing to New York.
“Unfortunately, it’s a trend that we’ve seen for a number of companies. It makes more sense for Indivior than most given the business is predominantly US based, with its sales and management based in the US,” said Max Herrmann, an analyst at Stifel.
“Growth companies tend to prefer US markets, particularly in healthcare. They’re going with the flow,” he added.
On Thursday, Indivior announced sales of $1.1bn for 2023 and adjusted net income of $223mn, ahead of analysts’ expectations and driven by sales of Sublocade, its treatment for opioid addiction.
In 2020, the company agreed to pay $600mn to settle criminal and civil investigations in the US over claims linked to another of its anti-addiction products, Suboxone.
