An investigation into why companies delist from the main market on the Irish stock market to the Irish enterprise exchange and the impact of regulation

Abstract

The Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) established a new market in 2005, the Irish Enterprise Exchange (IEX). The main difference between these markets is that less regulations are required under the IEX. One of the objectives of the IEX market was to act as a “stepping stone” where companies would eventually list on the Main Market (MM). Instead it has seen companies delisting from the MM and re-listing on the IEX. Thus, in this study the researcher examined the reasons for this and if regulation had an impact on this. In conducing the study the researcher used both primary and secondary research. The researcher used semi-structured interviews with a sample of companies that had delisted and two regulatory bodies, the Office Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) and the ISE. This allowed the researcher to attempt to examine why companies delisted between the two markets. The findings suggest that the size of a company was a key reason to delist from the MM to the IEX and the cost of been listed on the MM. In relation to the link of regulation, it was established that this would not have been a major consideration for the company to delist to the IEX market.