LONDON |
LONDON Dec 24 (Reuters) – A decline in the number of
companies listed on London’s junior stock market eased this year
and around half the companies that did leave were bought up or
transferred to bigger exchanges, a Deloitte report shows.
It said the number of companies listed on the London Stock
Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) had
fallen every year since 2007, but the fall in 2012 was just 4
percent, compared with 16 percent in 2009, its fastest year of
contraction.
“During the time of the financial crisis … the principal
reasons why companies were leaving the list were negative,” said
Richard Thornhill, capital markets partner at Deloitte.
“Either they no longer perceived that the market offered
them value … or the economic climate forced them to de-list.
The situation in 2012 has been very different, with the driving
force behind companies leaving the list being transactions which
have consistently realised value for shareholders.”
Of the 113 companies who had left the market by the end of
November, 41 were acquired, 17 were subject to reverse
take-overs and three transferred to London’s main market.
Those companies which were bought received an average
premium of 53 percent to their closing share price on the day
before the acquisition.
By the end of November, 65 companies had joined AIM, and the
share prices of the 44 which raised money on admission had risen
an average 26 percent since listing.
“There are good reasons to be confident about the market in
2013,” said Thornhill.