US stakeholder pulls out of Huntingdon

One of the biggest shareholders in Huntingdon Life Sciences, the UKdrug-testing company, is selling its 8.02% stake in the firm. Oracle Partners, a USA-based hedge fund, is moving out as a result of protests by animal rights activists (Marketletters passim) and its effect on the firm's share price. The Financial Times quotes Oracle's president, Larry Feinberg, as saying that "my staff have been threatened by these terrorists and I have to take account of that." Huntingdon described the loss of Oracle as "unfortunate and inevitable" in the light of heightened protestor activity, but said private investors were picking up the divested holdings.

The news comes in the wake of Huntingdon's recent decision to operate under a new US-based shell company, Life Sciences Research (Marketletter October 15) and, at the time, the UK group said that one of the benefits of relocating to the USA was the protection it would afford shareholders.