Biotech Abcam scraps London listing in favour of New York

ONE of Britain’s largest biotech companies is to abandon its London listing in favour of New York as the City struggles to attract science start-ups.

Abcam, which is headquartered in Cambridge, said it has consulted with shareholders on how to increase share liquidity and had come to the conclusion that being solely listed on Nasdaq was the best option.

It has had a dual listing since 2020, having previously been traded solely on London’s Aim junior market since a float in 2003.

The company will be holding talks with shareholders over the plan to cancel the listing on Aim and is expected to put the proposal to a vote later this year.

Shares jumped 5pc yesterday. Abcam’s value has fallen by a third since the end of last year. The company, which makes protein research tools, is worth £2.7bn, making it one of Aim’s largest listed biotech companies.

It will be seen as a slight to UK ambitions to attract more biotech and tech companies, just days after it emerged that work on a London listing of the chip designer Arm had ground to a halt.

Those which have opted for a City float in recent years, such as Oxford Nanopore, have had a bumpy ride. Shares in Oxford Nanopore are down by more than a fifth since it joined the London Stock Exchange last autumn.