Indivior PLC (LSE:INDV), the pharma firm developing medicines to treat addiction and mental illnesses, has edged closer to a move to the US after a top-ten shareholder said it would back the move.
Last month, the group said it would be considering switching its primary listing on the London Stock Exchange for the Nasdaq, but would consult shareholders beforehand.
The top-ten shareholder, which hasn't been named in reports, is said to vote in favour of the move as it is aware that most of Invidior's business takes place in the States.
Around 83% of total revenues are generated from the US, roughly half of its share capital is owned by American investors and management works out of North Chesterfield, Virginia.
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.