£1.8bn raised in AIM IPOs in last year – highest since 2013/14

Publications that covered this story include the Evening Standard on 25 April 2018.
  • Resurgence in resources and energy firms listing on London’s junior market
  • Shrinkage of AIM slows by 73%

The amount of money raised in AIM IPOs reached £1.8bn last year*, the highest since 2013/14, our research shows.

AIM has been boosted by a recovery in the number of resource and energy companies listing on the market, traditionally AIM’s strongest sector. In total 22% of AIM IPOs in 2017/18 were from the energy and mining sector, the largest percentage across all sectors.

Three notable energy and mining IPOs have happened on AIM in the last quarter include:

  • Renewables investment fund Greencoat Renewables, which raised £237.6m in July 2017, the largest AIM float in the past year
  • Cradle Arc, the specialist copper and gold miners, who after listing had a market cap of £21.6m
  • Afritin Mining, a specialist tin mining company in Namibia and South Africa, raised £3.9 million in November 2017 through its IPO

The AIM market has also seen a 73% decline in the number of companies leaving the market in the past year. The net number of companies leaving AIM has fallen from 48 in 2016/17 to 13 in 2017/18, as the market has strengthened its energy and resources sector and consolidated elsewhere.

The increasing quality of the companies that remains on AIM, along with the recovery of the resources sector, has helped record trading volumes. The average daily amount traded on per company listed on AIM was £279,321 in December, the highest average for a decade.

Laurence Sacker, managing partner in our London office comments: “IPOs on the AIM have become an increasingly attractive proposition for institutional investors as the overall quality of AIM has risen.”

“Investors are more willing to put their money into AIM listed companies than at any time over the past five years.”

“For AIM to continue to attract a healthy number of companies to their market, it will have to fight off increasing competition from private equity funds, looking to provide growth companies with expansion capital for later into their life cycle.”

“Whilst the global stock market rally has helped boost AIMs performance, this should not take away from the underlying and gradually improved quality of the companies listed on the financial market.”

Amount of money raised through AIM IPOs highest in four years

* 2017/18 Year end date March 31

 

 

 

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