Pet healthcare giant CVS is hoping to move to the main market of the London Stock Exchange after a regulatory crackdown on the sector was less ambitious than initially feared.
CVS, which has been listed on London’s junior AIM market since 2007, told investors on Thursday that Competition and Markets Authority proposals published last week cleared the way for the move.
The CMA published a list of 21 measures designed to boost consumer choice and savings by forcing UK veterinary practices to be more transparent on pricing from next year.
It follows an investigation that found vet prices soared 63 per cent between 2016 and 2023 alone, driven in part by waves of consolidation that have seen major providers swallow up smaller practices.
The CMA’s proposals include a new £16 price cap on prescriptions and a new comprehensive price comparison website, but the regulator stopped short of imposing more stringent measures such as a ban on bonuses linked to offering specific treatments.
CVS said ‘clarity afforded by the CMA’s provisional decision’ as well as strong sales growth had prompted its decision to switch to the main market of the London Stock Exchange.
New measures will force UK vets to be more transparent on pricing from next year
The vet group said the move ‘will provide access to deeper pools of capital across a broader range of investors, offer the potential for index inclusion, improve trading liquidity, and enhance the group’s corporate profile’.
Chair David Wilton added: ‘We are grateful to our shareholders for their long-term support particularly through the period of uncertainty in the past two years since the CMA launched their market review in September 2023.
‘We look forward to working with all our stakeholders in our next phase of growth.’
CVS expects its share will be admitted to the main market of the LSE in the first quarter of next year, pending regulatory approval, at which point it would no longer trade on AIM.
The group, which also announced a £20million share buyback programme on Friday, said it does not intend to raise fresh cash with the move.
Nevertheless, CVS Group shares were down 4 per cent at 1,366.9p by midday.
Shares have still added almost 70 per cent since the start of 2025 and around 490 per cent since listing on AIM in October 2007.
Aarin Chiekrie, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: ‘The CMA’s proposed remedies focused on improving price transparency for pet owners, with little in the way of price controls and no suggestion of a break-up of the group.
‘The move to the main market should give CVS Group access to deeper pools of capital and increase trading liquidity.’
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