Built to nurture the UK companies of tomorrow, the Alternative Investment Market (Aim) has instead become a synonym for perma-crisis.
For years, weak corporate governance standards and small shareholder protections were the problem. Then came a losing battle with private capital, and a valuation discount exacerbated by the return in late 2021 of inflation and higher interest rates.
More recently, as the pace of takeovers has accelerated, new entrants have all but vanished. Over the past year, Aim IPOs fell to their lowest level since the global financial crisis, with just £89mn raised from new issues. That’s just 1 per cent of the market’s 2006-07 peak, per accountancy firm UHY Hacker Young.