LONDON (Alliance News) - The resurgence in initial public offerings in 2014 has led to the number of new listings on London's AIM market doubling in the first half of the year compared with the first half of 2013, while the amount of money raised by the newly floated companies has increased more than fivefold, according to data from the London Stock Exchange.
Forty-one companies listed on AIM in the first half of 2014, raising more than GBP1.3 billion. That compares with twenty-two companies that listed in the first half of 2013, raising a total of just GBP248 million.
This year's new AIM listings have had mixed fortunes since their floatation however. Online fashion retailer BooHoo.com, which was the biggest IPO on AIM so far this year by initial market capitalisation, dropped on its first day of trading back in March and continues to trade 16% below its IPO price. Meanwhile, parcel delivery company DX Group has gained 23% since its late-February IPO.
There have recently been signs of a softening in investor appetite for new listings, with retailer Fat Face, student accommodation provider Liberty Living, and offshore drilling contractor Shelf Drilling Ltd all citing challenging market conditions for pulling their planned main market IPOs. Hotel chain easyHotel, part of the easyGroup, only ended up raising half of the GBP60 million it had originally targeted in its AIM IPO.
Still, interest remains relatively buoyant compared to recent years, with healthcare company Abzena Ltd set to be the latest to list on AIM on Thursday. It priced its IPO at 80 pence on Monday, raising GBP20 million and giving it an expected initial market capitalisation of GBP77.9 million.
The recent surge in AIM listings has broken a multi-year trend of muted growth, with nineteen new names joining in the first half of 2011, rising to twenty-one in the first half of 2012, and twenty-two last year, before the spike to forty-one-and-growing this year. BooHoo.com's initial valuation was GBP560 million.
The junior market still has a way to go before it gets back to the heyday of the pre-recession mid-2000's however. In the first half of 2006 more than one-hundred-and-fifty new names listed on AIM, raising over GBP4.7 billion.
By Jon Darby; jondarby@alliancenews.com; @jondarby100
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