Indivior PLC's (LSE:INDV) shares surged 16% in early trading as the drugmaker announced plans to relocate its primary listing from London to New York, seeking to enhance its appeal to US investors as well as aiming for inclusion in major stock indices.
The company, known for its opioid use disorder and schizophrenia treatments, revealed this strategic move alongside its full-year results, stating the listing shift could occur in the summer of 2024, pending shareholder approval.
Indivior, which generates most of its sales from the US, is currently engaging with shareholders to gauge support for the transition, with a formal resolution to be proposed if there is strong shareholder endorsement.
If it makes the move, the drugmaker, spun out of Reckitt Benckiser in 2014, will join a growing exodus from the London market, which has been hit by a post-Brexit downturn in liquidity and lacklustre valuations for those businesses quoted on the LSE.
Shareholders of TUI, the travel group, last week voted to cancel its London listing in favour of Frankfurt, while Flutter, the company behind Paddy Power, recently pressed 'go' on a New York quote.
Before that, mining giant BHP, building materials group CRH, packaging group Smurfit Kappa and builders' merchant Ferguson turned their back on the FTSE 100 for primary listings in Australia or the US.
And there was resignation rather than shock when Cambridge-based chip designer ARM Holdings opted to IPO on Nasdaq, a move vindicated a more than doubling of the share price post floatation.
Indivior used better-than-expected full-year results as the forum for its announcement. It posted a litigation-hit $4m loss, down from $85m a year earlier, while total net revenue rose 21% to $1.1bn.
Investors were provided with bullish guidance for 2024. Investment bank Jefferies said the numbers given were around 11% ahead of consensus forecasts.
The stock was up 220p at 1,576p.