General

1. How long has London's AIM existed and why was it formed?

London's AIM was established in 1995 by the London Stock Exchange to provide small and medium-sized, growth-oriented companies with early access to the capital markets and to feed the Main Market.

2. How has London's AIM changed since its inception in 1995?

Over the last ten years, London's AIM has forged its own identity and is now complementary to the Main Market with 1,000 companies, 35% of which are international.

3. How much money has been raised on London's AIM?

Since inception in 1995, £100 billion ($125 billion) has been raised on London's AIM; £42 billion ($52 billion) in AIM IPOs and £58 billion ($73 billion) in AIM secondary offerings.

4. How big are London AIM listed companies?

The vast majority of London AIM-listed companies have market capitalizations in the £10 million to £250 million ($13 million to $313 million) range.

5. In which industries do London AIM-listed companies operate?

There are a wide variety of industries in which London AIM-listed companies operate, although, there are concentrations in consumer and enterprise software, healthcare, including; biopharma, medical devices and healthcare IT, technology-enabled industrials, the extractive industries (i.e. mining and oil and gas), technology-enabled consumer services (i.e. digital media), internet technologies and applications, cleantech and general finance.

6. Is London's AIM an unregulated market?

No.  London's AIM is an exchange regulated market, meaning it is regulated by the London Stock Exchange which is regulated by the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority operating under the Bank of England.

7. What is the regulatory trend on London's AIM?

With the rapid expansion of London's AIM since the middle part of the last decade, the rules for the Nominated Advisers were codified in early 2007 and the rules for the AIM-listed companies now include a requirement to maintain a website which discloses certain corporate and financial information.

8. What is the IPO trend on London's AIM?

Post the Global Financial Crisis, IPO activity on London’s AIM has been very stable with 40 - 80 AIM IPOs each year from 2010 - 2016.  The fact that AIM shares can now be held in U.K. Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs), the U.S. equivalent of IRAs, and the 0.5% stamp duty (tax) on the purchase of shares has been abolished has led to an improvement in general market conditions.  The secondary offering market on London’s AIM, which has been crucial to it’s overall success, raised £4.1 billion ($5.1 billion) during 2016, the 2nd most since 2010, with only 2015 surpassing 2016 with £4.9 billion ($6.1 billion) raised.

9. Is it easier to list on London's AIM if our company is already listed on another stock exchange?

Yes.  In fact, if your company has had its securities traded on what London’s AIM considers a “designated market” for at least 18 months prior to admission to London’s AIM, a “fast track route” can be utilized.  What this means is that you do not have to produce a formal AIM Admission Document but rather issue a brief, but detailed, pre-admission announcement at least 20 days before the expected date of admission to London’s AIM.  Your company would still have to engage a Nominated Adviser and a Nominated Broker in order to initiate the process.

The 10 London AIM Designated Markets are the top tier markets of the ASX, Deutsche Börse Group, Johannesburg Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, NYSE, NYSE Euronext, NASDAQ OMX Stockholm, Swiss Exchange, TMX Group and the UKLA Official List (i.e. the London Stock Exchange’s Main Market).