GW Pharmaceuticals plc has announced leaving AIM and canceling trading in London, to continue trading only on NASDAQ.
The company on Wednesday said that it would leave its headquarters in UK and continue to expand UK operations.
The London-based a biopharmaceutical company’s last day of trading on AIM will be December 2, 2016, but will retain its U.S. listing on the NASDAQ.
Justin Gover, GW’s Chief Executive Officer, said:“Since listing on NASDAQ in 2013, GW has raised nearly $800 million largely from U.S. investors which has helped transform our business and its prospects. With the vast majority of shares now held and traded in the U.S. in the form of ADRs, the time is right to reduce the complexity and expense of a dual listing.”
Gover said that the proposed cancellation of the AIM listing wouldn’t have any impact on GW’s UK presence, noting its increase in recent years.
“We remain firmly committed to bringing important products to the global market, products that are both researched and manufactured in the UK,” Gover concluded.
According to GW, which currently has 420 employees in the UK, it expects the number to continue to increase. The company further said it prepares for global regulatory submissions and approvals of Epidiolex, its investigational product for the treatment of a number of rare childhood-onset epilepsy disorders, as well as advance its cannabinoid product pipeline.
Background
Having been listed on the AIM market of the London Stock exchange since 2001, GW completed a successful Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the NASDAQ Global exchange in May 2013, with the result that a dual listing was achieved. The liquidity of trading of GW’s shares was immediately enhanced by the NASDAQ listing and demand from U.S. investors following material corporate progress has led to share price growth and rapid increase in the proportion of GW’s shares that are held through NASDAQ.
GW believes that this trend is likely to continue, leading to a further reduction in the proportion of shares held and traded through AIM. The Company expects that continuation of the decline in proportion of shares held and traded through AIM is likely to lead to a decrease in the liquidity of AIM trading and that it would be advantageous for all GW shareholders to combine trading volumes from both markets onto a single exchange in one time zone.