ECOVIS London

Specialisms

AIM

AIM is the London Stock Exchange's international market for smaller growing companies. These businesses range from young, venture capital - backed start-ups to well established, mature organisations looking to expand. The objective of AIM is to offer smaller companies - from any country and any industry sector - the chance to raise capital on a market with a pragmatic and appropriate approach to regulation.

Since its launch in 1995, over 2,500 companies have joined AIM - raising more than £34bn in the process, both through initial public offerings (IPOs) and further capital raisings. This capital has helped AIM-quoted companies of all kinds to fund their development and pursue their ambitions. Many companies have made the transition to the Exchange's Main Market following their success and positive experience on AIM.

Our client service team has many years of experience in co-ordinating multi-national services for listed clients, and have recently undertaken several “public to private” transactions for smaller listed companies. We avoid surprises, and offer smaller listed companies. Our services to AIM listed companies and to those of you thinking of going to IPO cover:

Reporting accountants and transaction support, including fundraising
Our team has acted as Reporting Accountants on the whole range of transactions, including IPOs, rights issues, Class 1 circulars and public-to-private transactions, and this familiarity means that we can add value to any transaction from day one.


IFRS reviews
The implementation of IFRS is a critical issue facing public companies. We help guide clients through the specific standards which are relevant to them, highlighting alternative treatments and developing “pro-forma” templates for the presentation of future income statements and balance sheets.


Tax planning
We therefore offer an integrated audit and tax compliance service, minimising disruption to our clients and avoiding duplication of effort. We can provide advice on a wide-range of tax matters, covering employee incentivisation, international transfer pricing, transaction structuring and VAT. Read more about Tax.


Corporate governance and risk management
Public focus on corporate governance has never been greater, and although an audit provides some assurance, we can undertake additional work to provide additional comfort to the board. For example, we can undertake internal audit and system review assignments.


Strategic advice
Our commercial insight, combined with our extensive public company experience, means that we understand what our clients are trying to achieve and can focus on what matters to them. Our partners have acted as Finance Director for a number of clients during fund-raising, and provide a high-level input into the issues facing our clients.


Is AIM right for my business?
To join AIM, you do not need a particular financial track record or trading history. There is also no minimum requirement in terms of size or number of shareholders. The point about AIM was that it was designed specifically for smaller growing companies it is precisely this flexible approach that has helped AIM to become the leading global growth market.

Having said that there seems to be no longer an upper limit on the size of applicants to the market. With 1500 companies on Aim as at June 2006 the average market cap of AIM companies has grown to £49m as at that date compared with £40m in the previous year and only £15m in 2002.

As at June 2006 the market Cap of all companies on AIM had grown to over £73bn from £40bn the year before. the average capitalisation was £49m

The number of companies on AIM is now only approximately 860 less than those on the main market and the balance could well swing the other way in 2007.

In a recent survey carried out, the number of companies describing AIM as “very attractive” fell from 60% in the previous year’s survey to 54% this year. Of new entrants questioned on this, the fall was even more dramatic (down to 44% from 67%). The decline in ratings may well have been because of the higher proportion of overseas AIM companies and recent market entrants. It clearly takes time to get used to life on AIM!

In terms of market performance, AIM also disappointed a surprising number of company owners and lagged behind other markets in 2005/6. This may have reflected a readjustment after a couple of years of strong growth but on reflection most experts consider that this was attributed to the large number of new issues.

Please contact Trevor Roberts if you would like to discuss our services for listed clients further.