AIM-pocalypse: Number of £1bn firms on junior market falls to nine-year low

Monday 06 January 2025 4:10 pm

Solely six corporations listed on London’s junior market AIM are price greater than £1bn, the bottom degree for the alternate in 9 years.

The variety of corporations price over £1bn has dropped by 80 per cent because the begin of 2022 and nearly halved during the last yr, in response to knowledge from the London Inventory Change.

Of the 30 companies price greater than £1bn on AIM initially of 2022, seven have been taken over, three have moved to the London Inventory Change’s predominant market, and the remaining have seen their market capitalisation fall beneath the £1bn degree.

One of many present six £1bn corporations, Gamma Communications, has already introduced plans to maneuver to the primary market halfway by this yr, leaving solely 5 massive corporations on AIM.

“The final time AIM ended a calendar yr with lower than six shares price in extra of £1bn was 2015,” stated Dan Coatsworth, funding analyst at AJ Bell.

“There have been solely 4 qualifying names at that time: ASOS, Abcam, New Europe Property Investments and Hutchison China.”

AIM corporations at file low

The full variety of corporations on AIM on the finish of 2024 hit the bottom degree in 23 years, with solely 688 companies listed on the inventory alternate. That is down from a peak of almost 1,700 in 2007.

In addition to a heightened variety of exits, a dearth of IPOs has additionally sapped numbers from the junior market, with 2024 recording the second lowest variety of IPOs in AIM’s historical past.

“AIM wants a reboot whether it is to remain related for an additional 30 years,” added Coatsworth.

“The London Inventory Change, FCA and authorities want to contemplate extra incentives for corporations to listing on AIM and methods to draw a broader pool of buyers to need to personal the shares.”