Secondary AIM issues reach record levels

04 January 2005

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Research from KPMG Corporate Finance reveals that 2004 is proving a record year for secondary issues on AIM. The junior market has raised a total of Â£1.1bn in secondary issues for the first ten months of 2004 - the highest level since its inception in 1995. The market also enjoyed a record year for IPOs with 179 new companies raising a total of Â£1.9bn. The total number of AIM companies stood at 958, 100 of which are international, as of the end of October an increase of 32.7% over the previous 12 months. It is projected that AIM will welcome its 1,000th entrant to the market early next year. Growth is also reflected in the total market capitalisation, which increased by 8.6% in October and rose 77.8% over the previous 12 months. The improvement of AIM's secondary issues market has been driven by an upturn in both the volume of transactions and the average size per issue. On average so far this year, secondary fundraising on AIM raised Â£3m per issue, a significant increase on an average value of Â£1.9m in 2003. This was fuelled by activity from the natural resources sector. Four of the five highest value fundraisings this year came from mineral exploration and extraction companies generating further expansion capital.