Britain's OKYO Pharma to move listing to New York from London
Okyo to delist from LSE in May
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Company plans to consolidate shares and list on NASDAQ
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Shares fall by as much as 25%
(Adds shares, background and details on London listing)
By Radhika Anilkumar
April 4 (Reuters) - British biopharmaceutical company OKYO Pharma plans to scrap its London listing and move its shares to New York, becoming the latest company to leave Britain's stock market.
Shares in OKYO Pharma, which attributed its decision to weak trading volumes and low valuations, fell by as much as 25% in early trade.
Some investors and financial executives have said London risks losing its appeal for stock market listings, although pharmaceutical and biotech firms have in any case tended to prefer New York over London, as the NASDAQ dominates the sector.
OKYO, which is focused on ophthalmology, said it would give shareholders the option of consolidating existing shares into a new share matching its current American Depositary Shares (ADS), and directly list the new stock on NASDAQ in place of the ADS.
The delisting, which will be effective from May 12, will have no impact on its ADS traded on the NASDAQ, it said in a statement.
Shares of the life sciences company, valued at about 34 million pounds, pared early losses and were down about 15% to 1.75 pence at 0822 GMT.
Britain's financial watchdog last month said it was working to streamline company listing rules to help London compete better with New York.
UK chip designer Arm, which had been expected to return to the London Stock Exchange, last month said it would only list in the United States.
In addition, Dublin-based construction materials company CRH plans to move its primary listing to the U.S. from London, while betting company Flutter Entertainment is considering an extra listing in the United States.
Oxford Nanopore, which floated in 2021 in a rare London biotech listing, has said it is open to additional listing options in future. (Reporting by Radhika Anilkumar and Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Barbara Lewis)
