Reeves would be mad to take aim at AIM
It would be disastrous for the Chancellor's "growth agenda" to penalise AIM investors.
Britain’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) is struggling. The number of new companies listing on the London Stock Exchange’s junior growth market has fallen to its lowest level since the Great Financial Crash of 2008.
Only £88.6 million was raised through new IPOs last year compared to £8.8 billion during AIM’s peak year of 2006, just ahead of the crash. How extraordinary. We know times are tough - and risk has become something of a no-go area for even the bravest of investors.
But for the number of new companies seeking new capital on one of the world’s most highly rated markets devoted to high-growth and innovative companies to have sunk this low is devastating.
Over the last year alone, the number of AIM-listed companies dropped by 70 to 738 at the end of March, a fall of nearly 10 per cent. In 2007, there were 1,700 companies.