AIM Gaining Share

According to investment bank, McNamee Lawrence & Co., more money was raised through IPOs on AIM than Nasdaq from January through July this year.  AIM raised $9.2 billion and Nasdaq only $8.2 billion.  There were 9 software IPOs on AIM compared to 7 on Nasdaq.  That’s a dramatic shift of market share.  We could hope that U.S. politicians and regulators would wake up, but our expectations for Nasdaq reform remain low. 

While more dollars are being raised, we have still not seen data of U.S. venture-backed IPOs performing well in the AIM aftermarket.  Another investment bank, Innovation Advisors notes aftermarket performance on AIM has lagged Nasdaq.  Our observation is that AIM has mostly attracted smaller companies. 

In conversations with various U.S. and London bankers, there appear to be a greater number of larger, potentially better performing companies in the AIM IPO pipeline.  We continue to look for positive case studies.