Aim to Main Market Success Pcedent?20 Sep 2018 13:50
Hungry for success
One of the biggest AIM-to-Main success stories is expanding pizza delivery company Domino’s Pizza, which migrated in May 2008. Floating on AIM in 1999, it had expanded from 190 to 501 stores by the end of 2007, during which time profits grew from £1.8 million to £18.7 million.
‘AIM had served us very, very well,’ recalls Lee Ginsberg, chief financial officer. ‘AIM did not hold us back particularly. In fact, the highest rating we ever had was on AIM. One of the reasons we considered moving was our sheer size. We were in the top ten AIM companies in terms of market cap.’
Domino’s decided to transfer north ‘because of the growth we had ahead of us. A move to the FTSE 250 was quite attractive to us and AIM was a little out of fashion at that stage, so we felt it was an opportune time’.
There were some disadvantages, recalls Ginsberg: ‘We lost some funds, but we gained others. Our IHT funds had to exit and some of them were disappointed. But we attracted tracker funds that now own 6 to 8 per cent. And on the full list there is a much greater base of shareholders that you can attract, particularly in the US. We already had some US shareholders on AIM, but that base grew once we became a full list company. US funds preferred us on the Official List to AIM, because there is a stronger perception of corporate governance’.
Domino’s expansive shareholder base now includes the likes of Standard Life and Chicago-based fund William Blair. As Ginsberg explains, ‘You do get the long-only funds and therefore more stability in your shareholder base. And our liquidity has picked up by between 20 and 30 per cent in terms of average daily volumes on the full list.’
Extract from www.growthcompany.co.uk 6 May 2010
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