The UK’s biggest drugmaker AstraZeneca said it will directly list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange, putting them on an equal footing to its London listing, to attract more investors, but affirmed its headquarters will stay in the UK.
The FTSE 100 company said its direct listing in New York will replace trading in its “American depositary receipts” (ADRs) – which give US investors exposure to a non-US company – on the Nasdaq.
AstraZeneca’s London-listed shares rose by 1.6% on the news.
The company’s chair, Michel Demaré, said the proposed structure would allow it to “reach a broader mix of global investors and will make it even more attractive for all our shareholders to have the opportunity to participate in AstraZeneca’s exciting future”.
The move also opens the company up to US pension funds. Its biggest shareholder is New York-based BlackRock, the world’s biggest fund manager.
The US is the world’s biggest pharmaceutical market, where AstraZeneca made $23.2bn (£17.25bn) in revenue last year, about 43% of its total, and is expected to make up half its sales by the end of the decade.
Donald Trump has ramped up the pressure on the pharmaceutical industry, threatening to impose steep tariffs unless they invest in the US, and has asked them to lower their prices, which have traditionally been much higher in the US than elsewhere. The deadline for companies to respond is Monday.
AstraZeneca, the UK’s second-biggest listed company with a market value of £170.5bn, insisted it will remain headquartered in Cambridge, England, and stay listed on the London Stock Exchange.
The group’s commitment to the UK has come under increasing scrutiny, after it paused a planned £2oom expansion of its research site in Cambridge earlier this month, which was expected to create 1,000 jobs. In January, it ditched a £450m revamp of its vaccine site in Speke in Liverpool, citing a cut in government support after months of negotiations.
They are among a number of projects that have been ditched or paused by big pharmaceutical firms, amid an ongoing row with government over drug pricing.
There have also been reports that Sir Pascal Soriot, the long-serving chief executive, would like to move its stock market listing, and potentially the company’s headquarters, to the US.
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Soriot has publicly expressed his frustration over the UK’s rejection of AstraZeneca’s breast cancer drug Enhertu, and has said the UK and Europe are falling behind China and the US in resesarch. A recent industry report showed the UK slipping down the global rankings in investment and research.
A shift in AstraZeneca’s listing would be a big loss for the London Stock Exchange, which has already suffered a string of departures by companies seeking higher valuations. In recent years, the equipment rental company Ashtead, Paddy Power bookmaker owner Flutter Entertainment, building materials supplier CRH and packaging company Smurfit Westrock have all left the LSE.
Such a move by AstraZeneca would probably spur an attempt to intervene by the UK government, which has made life sciences one of its main growth pillars. However, it would not have any formal power to stop AstraZeneca from moving its listing.
Soriot was the highest-paid chief executive on the FTSE 100 for several years, receiving £14.7m in 2024 and £16.85m the previous year. Last year, his pay package ranked behind those of the current and former boss of the engineering group Melrose, Peter Dilnot and Simon Peckham respectively.
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