The year was 1983. John Harvey-Jones was in charge and ICI was bristling with ideas for expansion. A couple of American acquisitions were on the cards and, more importantly, ICI’s drug division was keen to properly crack the US market. A little heart drug had block-buster potential…
That was the year the so-called bellweather of British industry made the bold step of seeking a listing for its American Depository Receipts on the New York Stock Exchange. It was almost avant garde and, in some minds, possibly un-British. Was it right that US shareholders were subsequently free to build a holding of 20 per cent or more in such an important British asset?
Fast-forward a short quarter century — past the demerger of Zeneca, the slow deconstruction, the boardroom upheavals. Then factor in the twin factors of intense pressure on costs and the pure pan-organisational irritation of complying with America’s loathed Sarbanes-Oxley legislation.
ICI announced on Tuesday that it plans to delist its ADRs from the NYSE and de-register from the SEC. Instead, anyone wanting to trade ICI stock states-side will have to go through Citibank, who will administer a kerb market-type trading facility, known in the US as International OTCQX.
The company will continue with its London listing, of course. But, according to a statement, “the decision is expected to generate cost savings of at least £4m ($8m) per annum based on the costs incurred using external suppliers and auditors to provide ongoing support to the Company’s Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.”