Company that fell from grace

Jill Treanor
guardian.co.uk, Thursday January 18 2001 02.53 GMT

Ten years ago investors rushed to buy shares in Huntingdon Life Sciences, which once traded at more than 300p. Now, it is a pariah to big institutional investors. Earlier this week the shares were worth 1p.

The fall from grace began in 1997 when abuse of animals at the laboratories was uncovered. Despite the introduction of new management and the shake-up in testing procedures, the company never recovered the confidence of investors.

The Labour party's pension fund was one of the first to pull out when it told investment firm Phillips & Drew to sell its shares in the company. Other big investors followed and Huntingdon's brokers, representing the company in the City, pulled out.

Now the Royal Bank of Scotland has to decide whether to continue throwing a lifeline to the laboratory which has not made a profit under the new management. The publicity has reawakened interest in the shares, which have hit 4p in recent days.

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