You’ll be hearing a lot about this next week. On 19 June, AIM marks its 30th anniversary.
Expect a flurry of facts and figures. Since its inception, 4,000 companies have embarked on their public journey via London’s growth market, raising £136 billion in the process.
According to Grant Thornton, in 2023 AIM companies contributed £68bn in gross value added to the UK economy and supported more than 770,000 jobs.
All very impressive and all available on the London Stock Exchange’s website extolling the merits of the small-cap bourse.
What this rose-tinted narrative glosses over is a growing sense of disenchantment.
What began as a light-touch introduction to public markets has become a financially burdensome and bureaucratic regime, increasingly ill-suited to today’s fast-paced business environment.
There are now just 679 constituents on AIM, the fewest in its history.
Last year, 89 companies left AIM, and the exodus has continued into 2025.
High fixed costs, often upwards of £500,000 a year, and sometimes closer to £1million, are frequently cited by those heading elsewhere.
Add to that dwindling trading liquidity, which has depressed valuations, investor risk aversion, and, crucially, limited access to growth capital.
Small wonder some businesses have opted to sit things out on matched-bargain platforms such as JP Jenkins and AssetMatch.
There are now just 679 constituents on AIM, the fewest in its history. To put that in perspective, there were nearly 1,700 listed stocks in 2001 when the market was in its heyday. Even during the Covid-fuelled small-cap boom of 2021, there were 821.
So when the LSE rolls out the triumphal messaging next week, keep all of the above in mind.
Now onto the nitty gritty. The AIM All-Share ended the week up 0.75 per cent at 762.02, marginally outperforming the FTSE 100, which was largely flat.
The week’s standout performer was Karelian Diamonds, up 144 per cent after Finland’s Safety and Chemical Agency formally registered the company’s mining rights for the Lahtojoki deposit. The site is estimated to contain over 2 million carats, with a notional value of $211 million.
Haydale Graphene Industries surged 127 per cent after reporting strong commercial traction for its JustHeat range, a low-power, graphene-based heating system aimed at energy-efficient applications.
Atlantic Lithium rose 55 per cent on news of leadership changes and a cut to management costs, underscoring efforts to reduce overheads and improve efficiency.
Phoenix Copper added 27 per cent after signing a non-binding letter of intent with a US investor for a proposed $75million secured bond to fund its Empire mine project in Idaho and strengthen its balance sheet.
It was a bruising week for investors in Metals One, whose shares halved after the company confirmed it would acquire the Swales gold property in Nevada, at a cost of $750,000. The deal had previously been flagged, but the market was clearly spooked.
From a recent peak of 48.5p, the shares now sit at 12.7p. Still, those who bought in at the start of the year are sitting on a 196 per cent gain.
Premier African Minerals fell almost 40 per cent after announcing a £1.6 million fundraising to support ongoing work at its Zulu Lithium and Tantalum Project in Zimbabwe.
The new shares were priced at 0.012p, a steep discount to the previous close. On top of this, the company settled $1.1million in contractor bills by issuing more than 6 billion new shares at the same price. Ouch.
Last week we covered the rise of Bitcoin treasury companies, including Vinanz, one of the pace-setters.
On Friday, it unveiled plans to bring crypto investing to the masses via a £1 million WRAP Retail share offer, open to private investors.
For the uninitiated, WRAP is a relatively new fundraising platform run by the City’s biggest market maker, Winterflood Securities.
It aims to democratise equity raises by offering individual investors access to deals typically reserved for institutions.
Vinanz, soon to be renamed The London Bitcoin Company, is using WRAP to broaden participation in a story already backed by institutional money.
‘We’re giving people across the UK the chance to be part of something big: to invest in Bitcoin through a London Stock Exchange main market company,’ chief executive Hewie Rattray told Proactive shortly after launch.
For all the breaking small- and mid-cap news go to www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk
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