Huntingdon's US listing is halted at last minute
By Rosie Murray-West, City Correspondent (Filed: 08/09/2005)

Animal rights activists yesterday claimed another victory against beleaguered animal testing group Huntingdon Life Sciences after the company's planned New York listing was pulled at the last moment.

The exchange would give no explanation for its decision, which was announced as Huntingdon chief executive Brian Cass was standing on the trading floor.

However, Catherine Kinney, president of the NYSE, is understood to have pulled the HLS executives aside and said that the NYSE had received calls from members of the New York financial community saying that the security of the exchange could be threatened by the animal rights activists.

"We're very, very disappointed and puzzled," Mr Cass said yesterday, as he prepared to fly home from New York. "It's rather puzzling and we'll just have to wait and see. We really don't know any more." An investor in the group was far more trenchant. "We are astonished that the New York Stock Exchange would knuckle under to a load of English hippies," he said.

Greg Avery, of activist group Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), said that the decision was "yet another slap in the face for HLS".

An activist group called Win Animal Rights (WAR) in the US had sent out an email alert to 10,000 people saying that the exchange was now "a primary focal point for this campaign".

The organisation added that it would post contact information on the company's market maker as soon as it became available. "Brian Cass may be on Wall Street for the day, but WAR will be there every day after that," the email said. Huntingdon Life Sciences, which trades as Life Sciences Research in the US, will continue to trade on the Nasdaq over-the-counter bulletin board until the position is clarified.

It is only three weeks since the company and the NYSE announced jointly that Huntingdon had been accepted on to the exchange. At the time, Ms Kinney said in a statement: "On behalf of my colleagues at the New York Stock Exchange, I would like to welcome Life Sciences Research to the NYSE family of listed companies. We look forward to our partnership with Life Sciences Research and its shareholders, along with providing a marketplace of the highest quality and renowned for its superior reach and visibility to the global investment community."

Mr Cass said at the same time: "It is gratifying that the company's significant growth in revenues, earnings and market capitalisation over the past several years has enabled us to achieve this important objective. As one of the founders and leaders in the market for outsourced safety testing services for the world's pharmaceutical and biotech industries, LSR is pleased to join the many life sciences companies already listed on the NYSE."

The company originally left the NYSE, where it traded Advanced Depositary Receipts and the London Stock Exchange, its main listing, over four years ago after a sustained campaign by activists.