A majority of institutional investors (60%) and AIM-listed companies (63%) are optimistic regarding further improvement in AIM performance over the next 12 months. Baker Tilly has released its annual survey of investors and companies on AIM. According to it, 80% of investors say their overall portfolio has benefited in 2010 from investing in AIM.  Access to funds remains the major concern for companies on AIM, but this was mentioned less frequently by those in the survey (28% versus 45% a year ago). 

Oracle Coalfields has become the first company from Pakistan to join AIM, a press release from London Stock Exchange says. The company is an independent coal developer of an estimated 1.4 bn ton coal resource in the south-eastern desert of Pakistan’s Sindh province. The company was previously listed on PLUS and has transferred the listing, raising an additional £3 million. 

The London Stock Exchange announced today that Jubilant Energy has become the fifth Indian company to float on AIM in the last ten weeks. Between them the five new Indian admissions have raised an estimated $344.4 million.

Tracey Pierce, Director of Equity Primary Markets at London Stock Exchange Group, said:

“This flurry of new Indian admissions by five diverse, ambitious and growing companies highlights the increasingly central role India is playing in the global economy, and how London can provide the capital to match the country’s appetite for growth. 

A very good article on investing in AIM in today’s FT by Ellen Kelleher. The gist of the article is that while the AIM market offers great overall returns (it is up 22% YTD), it is a perilous area for the unsophisticated private investor seeking a small position. The biggest danger is that of de-listing as statistics reveal that close to 500 companies have left the market since 2007. The article backs up HBG’s strategy of taking strategic stakes in companies where HBG can unlock the maximum value. 

In 2009, companies on the London Stock Exchange’s growth market AIM contributed a total of £21 billion to UK GDP and supported 570,000 jobs through direct, supply chain and multiplier effects, but greater fiscal incentives and fewer restrictions are needed to stem net outflows of capital from small caps and enhance the economic benefits delivered by the sector, according to a report by Grant Thornton, commissioned by the London Stock Exchange.