United Drug, the Irish-based healthcare services group, is poised to shift its primary listing to the London Stock Exchange in a fresh blow to the Dublin market.

Following consultations with executives and investors since it raised the idea last month, the company is set to confirm the move in the coming days in the latest of a series of high-profile departures from the Irish Stock Exchange.

Company executives believe the move will allow the company to boost its visibility and interest from foreign investors and more accurately reflect its growing international activities.

By obtaining a primary listing and dropping out of the Dublin exchange, United Drug plans to enter the FTSE 250, where executives are seeking to reclassify the company from a retail to a healthcare business to reflect its evolving activities.

The move will not change its tax registration here.

United Drug would only say yesterday that a decision was imminent.

When news of its plans were made public last month, the Irish Stock Exchange stressed in a statement that it “continues to provide leading Irish companies with the ability to list on an EU regulated market, flexible currency arrangements, inclusion in Irish and European benchmark indices [Iseq, Euro Stoxx] and a high-quality, low-cost platform allowing domestic and international investors and brokers to trade in their shares”.

“The Irish market provides a valuable and loyal support system for growing Irish companies in broking, analysis and corporate finance expertise, as indicated by the current strong trading volumes on the Irish market for United Drug and the company’s growth since listing on the ISE.”

United Drug has diversified from its historic base, with the proportion of total profits generated in the Republic dropping from 66 per cent in 2000 to less than 30 per cent this year. It has expanded into the US for drug distribution. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012)