AIM is breaking its own records for the amount of money raised, however larger companies are dominating the market, a new report suggests.
Data, collected by business advisory firm Deloitte, shows that during the second quarter of this year over £7bn was raised on the market.
This beats the previous record of £5.3bn by a considerable margin, however it is less to do with the number of companies and is all about the size of those coming to market.
James Ferguson, capital markets partner at Deloitte, said: “In the first half of 2007, we have seen larger companies on the market maturing and successfully sourcing capital when required.
“The number of companies listed on AIM is smaller, 84 in Q2 compared to 108 in the same period last year, indicating bigger companies are now coming to market.”
The biggest company to join the market in the past year is the Israeli firm Delek Global Real Estate, which had a market capitalisation of £519m upon listing.
However, international companies are only one part of the story of AIM, as of the 1656 listed just 319 are from outside the UK.
Also, the figures show that the market capitalisation of UK companies was higher for this year than 2006.
Ferguson added: “These findings indicate that, contrary to the bad press that a number of AIM companies have received over the last year, there are many established AIM companies coming back to the market and persuading investors to put more money into them.”
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2007