Greencore leaves Iseq for London after 20 years

GREENCORE BOWED out from the Irish Stock Exchange yesterday, in its last full-day trading on the Iseq index.

The food company, which has had a dual listing in Dublin and London, will begin trading solely on the London Stock Exchange from Monday and will trade in sterling. Greencore announced its intention to move its listing to London in July when it acquired British food company Uniq for £113 million (€128.5 million).

More than 90 per cent of Greencore’s turnover is generated in the UK, where it is one of the main producers of sandwiches, ready meals and desserts for the retail sector.

The company indicated at the time of the acquisition announcement that it may seek a secondary listing in Dublin in time.

Greencore’s departure from the Iseq ends a 20-year history on the Dublin exchange.

The former State-owned company was established in 1991 through a flotation of Irish Sugar by the government; 55 per cent of the company was initially floated at €1.46 a share.

The government sold the balance of its holding in 1992 and 1993.

This week has seen a big jump in the liquidity of Greencore shares in Dublin and London ahead of the move.

A number of Irish or euro-tracker funds have been obliged to offload their holding as it departs from the Irish market. According to some analysts, the fact that the share price has risen suggests a strong uptake by new buyers.

Greencore was trading at about 55 pence yesterday in London and 67 cents in Dublin, although it fell back slightly at close.

While the move to London means some UK small cap index-lined funds will gain exposure to Greencore, Dublin-based analysts predicted that the impact may be slightly lower than expected, because of the relatively low number of small-cap index-linked funds in the UK.

The vast majority of Greencore’s shareholders are institutional shareholders. The company expects to be listed on the FTSE SmallCap by March 19th.

Irish private shareholders can still trade their shares as normal through their brokers following the delisting in Dublin.