Is AIM a viable option to go public?
September 2nd, 2006
Every month or so someone talks about going public on AIM (Alternative Investment Market) in UK. The requirements to go public are less strict: there is no SOX requirement, no minimum revenue etc. Almost every investment firm also has a “AIM” specialist you can talk to.
The conversation almost always drifts to liquidity and the general belief that the market is not liquid. So it depends on why you want to go public, for some companies they are looking for currency to buy other companies, or simply because larger companies like to buy from public companies. Those objectives are not met by getting listed on the AIM. Or atleast that is what the impression seems to be.
It does help with personal liquidty, but I haven’t come across a company which has done this yet. I am not even sure it is better than doing something like a DPO (direct public offering) which you can do both in Canada or the US. It is rumored Google contemplated doing a DPO. But in the long term investors prefer that someone has benchmarked the company to not be a fly-by-night operation.
Entry Filed under: Who Buys Who
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