G.J.I.S.S.,Vol.

3(1):16-18 (January-February, 2014) ISSN: 2319-8834

VOLUNTARY DELISTING: THE REASONS BEHIND

Douglas Muyeche
Department of Finance, National University of Science & Technology, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

Abstract
Delisting from a securities exchange has often been viewed as evidence of tough times within an organisation. The
purpose of this paper is to unravel the reasons behind voluntary delisting. The study has made use of published literature
with examples from different countries. In as much as most delisting(s) are involuntary, there are good reasons for a
counter to opt for voluntary delisting in light of enhancing shareholder value. The cost of remaining public versus the
cost of going private has been cited as the most determinant factor in voluntary delisting. Another notable reason has
been found to be the inability to raise equity capital by the listed firm owing to a relatively lower share price compared to
the real net asset value of the firm. The need to merge, demerge or restructure a firm may be drivers of voluntary
delisting. Delisting may however tend to reduce the universe of liquid shares thereby affecting the depth and breadth of
the market especially if there are no new listings. Delisting may be considered a viable option if the firm is to restructure
via merging with a non-listed entity.

Keywords: voluntary delisting, securities exchange.

Introduction
Delisting may be considered to be the reverse of listing1. It implies the permanent removal of securities of a listed
company from a stock exchange (ibid).Investopedia defines delisting as the removal of a listed security from the
exchange on which it trades2. Contravention of listing requirements is highlighted as one of the leading reasons behind
delisting (ibid). Mention is also made of the fact that delisted stocks are not necessarily bankrupt since trading may
continue but as private equity thus over the counter. With that in mind, this manuscript seeks to find the reasons behind
voluntary delisting.
Earlier studies suggest that access to public markets for additional capital is the major motivation for firms to
undertake IPOs (for instance, Aslan and Kumar, 2011; Bharath and Dittmar, 2010; Kim and Weisbach, 2005 and Marosi
and Massoud, 2007). It can be noted from history that depending on the stock, there is a lot of hype associated with
going public especially via an IPO (Degorge, Derrian and Womack :2007).

Research Objective
Establish universal reasons for voluntarily delisting from a securities exchange .

Literature Review
Block (2004) in his empirical study of delisting discovers the cost of remaining public as the number one reason of
going private for smaller firms. His study managed to reject a null hypothesis of there being no relationship between
market capitalisation and going private because of cost thus implying the presence of such a relationship. Martinez and
Serve (2011) are in agreement with Block (2004) as they argue that delisting is as a result of cost-benefit analysis. With
the use of univariate analysis and logistic regression alongside cost benefit analysis they highlight the fact that when
listing benefits decrease because of weak liquidity and/or weak analyst coverage, it will seem better for a firm to go
private. Martinez and Serve (2011) give the form in which the cost of listing may come, thus weak liquidity and/or weak
analyst coverage. They also find out that mature firms which have a capital structure not biased towards debt, but with
weak performance may opt to delist since they may not afford the listing status (ibid). The cost benefit argument
however does not receive adequate support from Macey et.al (2004) as they regard the benefits of delisting to have
diminished over time whilst the costs associated with delisting have not delisted by a commensurate magnitude.
Pour and Lasfer (2013) contend that delisting is a cumulative result the failure of firms to benefit from listing,
implying concurrence to the cost-benefit consideration to such a decision. They however note that prior to delisting
leverage remained very high for the firms thus leading to an inability to raise equity capital. Since most firms subscribe
to the market access hypothesis, i.e. listing so that they rebalance their capital structures, and having failed to access such
capital during their listing-lifetime growth options and profitability will be constrained as such (Pour and Lasfer 2013,
p3). This failure to rebalance the capital structure may in certain instances hamper the overall goal of value maximisation
since the firm’s optimal capital structure will not be in its vicinity(). Firms that fail to reduce their leverage during their
public life due to failure to raise equity capital have a high probability of opting out of the securities exchange(ibid, p5).
If however equity capital cannot be raised with ease then the reasons for remaining listed may not be that tangible since
there are costs associated with listing. Pour and Lasfer (2013), conclude that voluntary delisting from the London
Alternative Investment Market3 is motivated by inability to raise equity capital, low growth opportunities, low

1
http://www.delisting.in/meaning.php
2
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/delisting.asp
3

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G.J.I.S.S.,Vol.3(1):16-18 (January-February, 2014) ISSN: 2319-8834

profitability and the generation of negative returns. They however also find that voluntary delisting may be voluntary if
the delisting firm is doing so as to re-list on a superior market if it now meets the listing requirements for such a market.
Fungáčová (2006) endeavours to establish the reasons behind massive delisting in the Czech Republic. He noted that the
issue of delisting is common to all types of economies i.e. developed, developing and emerging. In his findings, delisting
may be a result of the company having not been a suitable candidate for listing especially in the emerging economies.
The study split reasons behind delisting as pre-privatisation, privatisation or post privatisation. As such pre-privatisation
factors include industry to which company belongs, the size of the company as well as indicators of its financial wealth.
Fungáčová (2006) noted that larger companies are expected to be less prone to delisting since their size naturally
qualifies them as candidates for public trading. Using the privatisation paradigm, Fungáčová (2006) identifies companies
with a better future outlook as having a lower probability of being delisted and also being characterised by a relatively
higher average price for their shares (ibid ,p13).

Examples of Delisted Entities

Primero Mining Company in opted of out of the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) citing a substantial shift in the
trading volume and relatively low liquidity in trading compared the activity of such shares on New York Stock Exchange
and Toronto Stock Exchange4. This seemingly supports the cost benefit analysis being put to use for those counters
which may be listed on more than one exchange like Primero Mining Company. If the a particular market is viewing a
certain counter in bad taste compared to another advanced market like the NYSE or TSE , then it is reasonable to remain
listed on the later as was done by Primero Mining Company. Primero determined that sustaining the administrative and
compliance costs of an ASX listing is not in the interest of Primero and all its shareholders and, accordingly, has made
the decision to delist from ASX but remain on the NYSE and TSE.
Citing the same reasons as those stated above was Marubeni Corporation which voluntarily applied for delisting
from two stock exchanges (Frankfurt and Düsseldorf Stock Exchange)5. Reasons stated for the delisting include the
relatively low trading volume of the Company’s shares on each of these two stock exchanges. It was in the company’s
view that the delistings were not going to cause substantial inconvenience to the corporation’s shareholders and
investors, since there was going to be continuity in trading of the same shares on Tokyo Stock Exchange, Osaka Stock
Exchange, Nagoya Stock Exchange, Sapporo Stock Exchange, and Fukuoka Stock Exchange.
Toray Industries Inc. decided to apply for the delisting from the London Stock Exchange (LSE) because of the low
trading volume of its shares6 . Despite that being stated as the main reason, Toray however communicated with the
shareholders stressing that this was not going to be of any negative impact since the shares remained tradable on the
Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE).
Kingdom Bank, Tanganda and Meikles voluntarily delisted from the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) when they
merged to form Kingdom Meikles Africa 7. Kingdom however returned to the ZSE for listing after the demerger the issue
of the merging of corporate which are all listed on a securities exchange usually results in their delisting since new shares
will be in issue for the combined group.
After having failed to raise required equity capital (US$6-million) from the ZSE, Interfresh Limited opted for
voluntary delisting citing reasons of the counter having had traded at a discount relative to the net asset value8. As such,
raising equity capital on the market at the valuations that held as at that time proved limiting to the corporation hence the
decision to delist. Borrowing after having failed to raise equity capital was considered not a viable option since the
company had not such borrowing capacity at reasonable cost.
From the ZSE again, CAPS Holdings decided to delist in a bid to restructure its operations9. The restructuring
entailed the merging of CAPS Holdings with its distributor arm Geddes paving way for a new health care division
through the merger of St Annes Hospital and QV pharmacies which were all part of CAPS and Geddes. The delisting in
this light was meant to provide room for flexibility in the restructuring exercise which could have proved difficult had it
been done when CAPS was a listed entity. Thus CAPS voluntarily delisted.

Conclusions & Recommendations

Remaining on a securities exchange may entail diverse costs which may no longer be justifiable. If the trading
volumes shrink and the market is failing to reflect the true value of the counter in the price, the listed entity may find it to
be very difficult to raise equity capital that may be required to neutralise the capital structure and for profitable projects.
As such the securities market would have failed in one of its fundamental duties i.e. that of providing access to capital.
Delisting may offer the required flexibility in representing the true value of an entity if the market has failed to transmit
company fundamentals into the price leading to reduced volumes and hence a high cost of remaining listed. Voluntary
delisting should not however be viewed in bad light as forced delisting where some contravention to the listing
requirements is intentionally impinged. It may be a better alternative than continuously adhering to costly transparency
and disclosure obligations which may not be benefiting shareholders of the day.

4
http://www.primeromining.com
5
http://www.marubeni.com/dbps_data/news/2004/040820e.html
6
http://www.toray.com/ir/pdf/131030.pdf
7
http://www.kingdom.co.zw/media_centre_ak.php?linkid=85
8
http://wwww.zimbabwe-stock-exchange.com
9
http://www.herald.co.zw/caps-holding-to-delist/
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References
Aslan and Kumar. (2011) Lemons and cherries? Growth opportunities and market temptations in going public and private. Journal of
Financial and Quantitative Analysis 46, 489-526.
Bharath and Dittmar, (2010) To be or not to be (public). Using going private transactions to examine why firms go public. SSRN
Working paper available in:http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=951710.
Block (2004), The latest movement to going private : An empirical study , Journal of Applied Finance, Volume 14, No. 1,
Spring/Summer 2004.
Degeorge and Derrian and Womack. (2007), Analyst Hype in IPO’s : Explaining the popularity of bookbuilding, The Society of
Financial Studies and Oxford University Press.
Fungáčová (2006), Can the market fix a wron administrative decision ? Massive delisting on the Prague Stock Exchange; Bank of
Finland.
Kim and Weisbach, (2005). Do firms go public to raise capital?. SSRN Working paper,
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=610988
Marosi and Massoud, (2007). Why do firms go dark?. Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 42, 421-442.
Macey et.al (2004), Down and Out in the Stock Market: The Law and Economics of the Delisting Process. Journal of Law and
Economics 51, 683-713.
Pour and Lasfer (2013), Why do companies delist voluntarily from the stock market?, Discussion Paper 2013-05, Birmingham
Business School.
Websites
http://www.delisting.in/meaning.php
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/delisting.asp
http://www.primeromining.com
http://www.marubeni.com/dbps_data/news/2004/040820e.html
http://www.toray.com/ir/pdf/131030.pdf
http://www.kingdom.co.zw/media_centre_ak.php?linkid=85
http://wwww.zimbabwe-stock-exchange.com
http://www.herald.co.zw/caps-holding-to-delist/

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