After struggling in the past to meet listing requirements for the New York Stock Exchange, Centrus Energy Corp. yesterday announced it would move to the NYSE MKT trading platform, which is geared toward companies with a smaller market capitalization. The decision comes after a Chapter 11 bankruptcy financial restructuring wrapped up last fall. Prior to the restructuring, the uranium enrichment firm received numerous notices from the NYSE for failing to meet the $1 share listing price limit and $50 million market capitalization threshold. Centrus requested the trading platform switch, according to company spokesman Jeremy Derryberry. “We will be a smaller company for the foreseeable future, and listing on the NYSE MKT is more appropriate for where our company is today,” Derryberry said in a written response yesterday. “Companies listed on the NYSE MKT platform generally have smaller market capitalizations and have smaller daily trading volume.”
Derryberry added: “Following our emergence from Chapter 11, roughly 95 percent of our common shares are held by fewer than 50 institutional investors, strategic investors (Toshiba and B&W) or family funds. That has greatly reduced our average trading volume. In 2013, our average trading volume was nearly 1 million shares each day; our 90-day trading average today is about 50,000 shares. Similarly, our market capitalization is less than $50 million.”
Jobs