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AstraZeneca plans to elevate its New York listing in a blow to London, as one of the UK’s biggest companies accelerates its pivot to the US.

In a significant shake-up announced on Monday, the UK’s largest drugmaker said that it planned to list its shares directly on the New York Stock Exchange, replacing the American depositary receipts that have until now given US investors exposure to the company.

Under the changes, AstraZeneca, the second-biggest company on the blue-chip FTSE 100 index, will put its listing in the US — which accounts for almost half of sales — on an equal footing with London.

It will retain its listing in London, stay in the FTSE 100 and remain headquartered in the UK. London will be its primary listing for regulatory requirements.

The group billed the change as a way of creating “a global listing for global investors in a global company”.

The move comes as Donald Trump ratchets up the pressure on the pharmaceutical industry to invest in the US and drugmakers are locked in a fight with the UK government over pricing.

One shareholder said: “Companies are trying to be nice to Trump. It’s a charm offensive, but there’s nothing to panic about just yet.

“If [AstraZeneca] left London, it would be a disaster . . . It’s reassuring at least with regards to [AstraZeneca] keeping its London listing and headquarters in the UK.”

Mark Kelly, chief executive of corporate advisory firm MKP Advisors, said: “Companies like AstraZeneca have been looking for ways to shift the balance of their listings away from London towards the USA while maintaining a guise of diplomacy.”

While AstraZeneca, which has a market value of £172bn and is the second-largest company in the FTSE after HSBC, will retain its London listing, the changes are likely to be seen as a blow to the UK capital as it battles to increase the appeal of London as a listing venue.

The UK market has in recent years suffered a steady stream of companies being taken private or shifting their primary listings to the US.

In a sign of the increasing importance AstraZeneca attaches to Wall Street, trades in its London-listed shares will be directly settled in the US as part of the changes.

AstraZeneca ADRs, listed on Nasdaq since 2020, are less liquid and harder to trade than the ordinary shares the company intends to list on the NYSE.

“This is a fresh blow to the London market — a thinly veiled transfer of liquidity to New York and likely the start of a backdoor exit from the UK,” said Kelly.

Setting out the overhaul, AstraZeneca, which is led by chief executive Pascal Soriot, said that it hoped it would “widen the pool of investors in AstraZeneca, especially US domestic institutional and retail investors”.

Sean Conroy, an analyst at Shore Capital, said AstraZeneca may be able to pick up more investment from index funds. But he added that it was the pharma company with the highest price/earnings ratio in Europe, where it has benefited from “scarcity value”. 

The move comes as Trump targets the pharmaceutical industry, threatening overseas companies with steep tariffs unless they invest and build plants in the US.

The US accounted for 43 per cent of AstraZeneca’s revenue last year and the company expects it to hit 50 per cent by 2030.

AstraZeneca has announced plans to invest $50bn in manufacturing and research and development in the US. Trump has given drugmakers a deadline of Monday to come up with voluntary price cuts, or face a policy that would peg US prices to lower levels in other developed countries.

Conroy said AstraZeneca’s “cosying up to the US”, while pausing investment in the UK, should be viewed against the backdrop of Trump’s policy to cut drug prices. “I think it is very much, what levers do they have to strengthen their position?” he said.

The group’s plan to list its shares on the NYSE will require shareholder approval, with investors set to vote on November 3.

Shares in the company were up just under 1 per cent in morning trading on Monday.