Recession leaves AIM stronger, says survey
The fourteenth annual survey of the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) by accountancy and business advisory firm Baker Tilly shows that despite a delisting of many of its smallest companies in 2009, AIM ended the year a stronger, albeit significantly streamlined, entity. Baker Tilly’s newly-published ‘Taking AIM’ report highlights that of the 300 companies that left AIM last year, a majority had a market capitalisation of less than £5m. The average market capitalisation of an AIM company is now £44m compared with only £24m two years ago. Baker Tilly Birmingham corporate finance partner Paul Johnson said: “AIM has revealed itself to be a market of maturity and strength, not to mention durability, and one with a role to play for companies advancing beyond their infancy and seeking to develop further. The most substantive proof of this is that secondary fund raisings increased from £3.2bn in 2008 to £4.8bn in 2009.
