GW Pharma Plans to Cancel U.K. Listing in Favor of Nasdaq

(Bloomberg) -- GW Pharmaceuticals Plc will end its stock listing in London and only keep the Nasdaq one starting in December because that’s where most of its shares trade.

GW will cancel the admission of its ordinary shares on London’s Alternative Investment Market on Dec. 5, meaning the last day of trading will be Dec. 2, the Cambridge, England-based company said in a statement on Wednesday.

“GW has raised nearly $800 million largely from U.S. investors, which has helped transform our business and its prospects” since listing on the Nasdaq in 2013, Chief Executive Officer Justin Gover said in the statement. “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.”

The U.K. company, with a market value of $3.2 billion, develops drugs derived from cannabis. Its leading asset is an experimental treatment for epilepsy, and it’s also working on candidates for cancer, diabetes and schizophrenia. GW has one approved medicine, Sativex, which is used to control involuntary muscle spasms from multiple sclerosis.

“The proposed cancellation of the AIM listing has no impact on GW’s U.K. presence, which has significantly increased in recent years,” Gover said. The statement didn’t mention the country’s vote to leave the European Union as a catalyst.

To contact the reporter on this story: Marthe Fourcade in Paris at mfourcade@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chitra Somayaji at csomayaji@bloomberg.net, Anjali Cordeiro