Four ways to give London's Aim market a boost

Aim, the LSE’s junior stockmarket, is celebrating its 25th birthday. It could do with a makeover, says Matthew Lynn.

Lolndon Stock Exchange ©
© Getty
(Image credit: Lolndon Stock Exchange ©)

When it launched in 1995, the Alternative Investment Market, now known as Aim, was designed to be a slightly less regulated version of the main London Stock Exchange (LSE). The City had already dabbled in different forms of junior listing, with fewer rules; the new exchange was designed to build on that. In the 25 years since it launched, a lot of companies have listed their shares on it and it has some real stars. The fashion retailers Boohoo and Asos, and the drinks company Fever-Tree, are all major success stories. Yet few companies are still raising capital on Aim. Last year there were just 11 listings on the market, down from 35 in 2018. Aim was meant to be the British Nasdaq – home to companies such as Netflix, Apple and Facebook – but it is nowhere close to that. It is fading away.

That isn’t right. The UK has a vibrant entrepreneurial culture and a growing technology industry. Our rate of new company formation is hitting record highs – or at least it was until the coronavirus crisis started – and we have more tech unicorns, as start-ups worth more than $1bn are known, than any other country in Europe. There should be a British Nasdaq. How do we make it happen? Here are four ideas.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up
Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.