Hvivo, a clinical trials group previously known as Open Orphan, has revealed plans to withdraw its shares from the Irish market later this year, impacting the already struggling Dublin stock market. The company, which delivers consultation services for unique and orphan drugs, particularly those for infectious diseases and respiratory conditions, also has a listing in London. Hvivo was established when Cathal Friel, the group’s chairman, integrated his identical pharmaceutical services company with the Dublin-listed clinical trials manager, Venn Life Sciences.
On Monday, Hvivo stated to shareholders that its core operations and the majority of employees and investors are located in the UK. Hence, the board has elected to centralise trading of the company’s stock on the AIM market at the London Stock Exchange. The move will reduce certain costs and the administrative burden of dual listing. Furthermore, it won’t affect Hvivo’s ordinary shares, which will keep trading on AIM under the ticker symbol “HVO”.
The firm’s UK-based sponsoring broker, Cavendish, sees this as a logical decision. It recognises the strong demand from UK-based investors, backed by the company’s positive growth trajectory. The company managed to raise £6.14 million (€7.3 million) by selling a 3.1 per cent stake at 29 pence per share last month.
Over recent years, the number of companies indexed on the Iseq All-Share has reduced by over 50 per cent to stand at 25, since Euronext acquired the then-named Irish Stock Exchange in 2018. With only three companies having entered the Dublin market in the past five years, public listings and company takeovers have surpassed initial public offerings.
Euronext’s CEO, Stéphane Boujnah, recently verified that the group is working on initiating an exclusive “springboard” market in Dublin. This development is aimed at aiding small enterprises to feature on the exchange list, and is part of the strategy to curb the ongoing decline of the Irish cash equities market. Euronext currently operates parallel Access markets in Paris, Brussels and Lisbon. In tandem with this, they are rallying the Government for aid to revive the trading platform’s equities enterprise.