Medical tech company Argent BioPharma has become the latest public company to ditch the London Stock Exchange over concerns about the regulatory burden and cost.
Announced on Friday, the biotech firm said it had reviewed the requirements and costs associated with both its London listing and its listing in Sydney.
The company said to “streamline and simplify processes” and to “increase administrative efficiencies”, it will request the cancellation of its shares in London, though it will retain its Australian listing.
Based in Subiaco, Western Australia, Argent BioPharma was listed in London in 2021, a bumper year for tech listings in the UK.
The firm has struggled to maintain its share value, debuting at 4950p and falling to just 9p as of Friday morning, a drop of 99.8%.
The most recent UK financial accounts, for the year ended June 2023, saw the company lose more than £4m with just £120,000 in revenue.
It becomes the latest in a growing list of firms abandoning the London markets, commonly citing regulatory costs and a lack of liquidity as the reason.
This week, speedy food delivery group Just Eat Takeaway announced its plans to stop trading in London from Christmas Eve.
In a statement, Just Eat Takeaway said it “considered, amongst other things, the liquidity and trading volumes, as well as cost and administrative requirements related to its primary listing in Amsterdam and secondary listing in London.”
According to the review, the “administrative burden, complexity and costs associated with” its London listing as well as “low liquidity and trading volumes of the shares on the LSE” were such that it no longer saw benefit to sticking around.
Like Argent BioPharma, Just Eat is focusing its efforts on its primary listing, on Euronext Amsterdam.
The firm’s most recent trading update, for the third quarter of 2024, revealed orders were down across all of its markets.
This week also saw maritime tech firm OTAQ announce its plans to delist from the Aquis Exchange.
Meanwhile, London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) has seen 92 companies delist in the past year.
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