UK retailer Marks and Spencer (M&S) said it would discontinue its secondary listings of its ordinary shares from the Euronext Paris and its depository receipts from Euronext Brussels and Amsterdam.
The move comes as the retailer continues to retreat back to its domestic market in the UK and pulls out of its continental European and US operations.
M&S said yesterday the delisting was done because the low volume of shares being traded on these markets did not merit the cost of maintaining them.
The move comes just as the retailer, which has been underperforming for the past three years, begins to see a recovery with shares at the end of this year outperforming the FTSE 100 index by more than 120 per cent.
Brandes Investment Partners and Franklin Resources, two US value funds that are the biggest investors in M&S, recently substantially cut their stakes in the retail group. The sales were interpreted by some as a sign that M&S's recovery is on track.
At the end of November, M&S accepted a knock-down price for Brooks Brothers, the iconic US upmarket men's wear retailer.
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