Huntingdon Life forced to quit London for US shares listing

Huntingdon Life Sciences, the vivisection group besieged by animal rights protesters, plans to abandon its London listing in favour of a US quote.

Activists claimed this was a huge setback for Huntingdon and said they would now go after brokers dealing in the shares in the United States.

Under the deal, Huntingdon shares will be exchanged for stock in a new American company traded on Nasdaq's Over the Counter Bulletin Board, which the company said provided greater liquidity. Huntingdon said it would eventually consider going for a full Nasdaq listing.

Brian Cass, Huntingdon's managing director, said: "The US securities markets offer both a more developed market for our industry and greater shareholder privacy, which, as everyone is aware, has been a serious issue for our shareholders."

The proposed deal will see Huntingdon's current shareholders holding 85.4 per cent of the new company, called Life Sciences Research, with the remainder being owned by new individual investors who are providing the company with a cash injection of $1.5m (£1.1m).

The group will continue to trade as Huntingdon and its UK operations, which employ 1,000 people, will be unaffected by the change. Richard Michaelson, director of investor relations at HLS, said he believes the group Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (Shac) will continue its campaign in the US. "It's very much our hope that the US system will prove more robust and less susceptible to this."

The group was deserted by a series of financial institutions in the City following a ferocious campaign by protesters who sought to intimidate brokers, banks and investors into severing all ties with Huntingdon.

Greg Avery, a Shac activist, said: "Brian Cass has said in interviews before that if Huntingdon has to move off the UK exchange the protesters have effectively won."