By Marcus Stuttard, Head of AIM, London Stock Exchange
Despite global macroeconomic uncertainty, we have seen strong levels of capital raising on AIM in 2018 and into 2019. Last year, companies raised £5.5 billion via 398 transactions, including 35 IPOs on AIM. The market also continues to be particularly attractive for tech companies, with 12 of London’s 19 tech IPOs in 2018 being on AIM. 24 years on from its launch, AIM continues to be a global success story for Britain as the world’s leading growth market.
In the 18 months to June 2019, over 45 new companies have been admitted to AIM, raising £1.7 billion. Not only is this another vote of investor confidence in Britain’s fast-growing businesses but a significant boost for UK Plc. These companies are vital to innovation, job creation and economic growth.
Success stories come from a wide variety of sectors. AIM has welcomed names such as restaurant and bar operator Loungers and property website OnTheMarket. They’ve joined cutting edge biotech and tech businesses such as Polarean Imaging, Codemasters and Team 17 in raising high quality, long-term equity capital in London. In the last 18 months, companies from the tech, finance and real estate sectors have raised the most capital on AIM while the most active sectors in terms of number of transactions – including both IPO and follow-on capital raisings – have been the mining, tech and oil & gas sectors.
Statistics like these reinforce the value of AIM not only as a vibrant IPO market but also a vital source of long-term capital to enable existing businesses access further funding to support their ongoing growth. In the first six months of 2019 over £2 billion has been raised in follow-on fundraising by existing issuers, the highest amount since the first half of 2015.
London Stock Exchange Group is committed to facilitating access to patient equity capital for innovative businesses across all stages of their development. We work with capital providers and policy makers across the equity funding ecosystem, and in addition to AIM we support the growth of ambitious private companies through ELITE, our international business support and capital raising programme for ambitious and fast-growing companies.
We look forward to the second half of 2019 and beyond with confidence and enthusiasm. The AIM pipeline continues to be robust and our mission remains constant: to support a diverse set of companies and investors to ensure the next generation of entrepreneurs have access to the patient equity capital they need to innovate and grow their businesses, supporting the economy and creating the jobs of the future.
This piece has been published as part of the Alternative Investment Market Report 2019. For the full report click here