London Stock Exchange Offers New Fast-Track Admission Route For Smaller International Companies

As part of its drive to attract international companies, the London Stock Exchange today introduced a new fast-track admission route to AIM, its international market for smaller, growing companies. Companies already listed on nine overseas exchanges will now be able to use their existing annual report and accounts as a basis for a complementary quotation on AIM.

The Exchange expects the new route to make it considerably easier and faster for smaller, overseas-listed companies to access institutional investors in London as well as the wider European capital market. This means companies can diversify their investor base and access an additional pool of capital to their home market.

Simon Brickles, Head of AIM at the London Stock Exchange, said: "There are investors and capital ready for international companies in London. If a company has already gone through a due diligence process on another market, that can now help them access London's benefits via AIM. This initiative continues our rolling programme of innovative measures to make AIM more accessible to overseas companies."

Companies that can take advantage of the fast-track route to AIM are those already listed on the main markets of the Australian Stock Exchange, Euronext, Deutsche Börse, JSE Securities Exchange (South Africa), Nasdaq, NYSE, Stockholmsbörsen, Swiss Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange. London Stock Exchange-approved nominated advisers will play an important role advising 'fast-track' companies, thereby maintaining AIM's well-respected standards of regulation.

The Exchange said that the further internationalisation of AIM also benefits UK companies on the market, since it will raise the market's profile and build further investor interest. AIM has been a success story against a global backdrop of lacklustre IPO markets in recent years. In 2002, there were 60 IPOs on AIM, representing 46 per cent of all the IPOs in western Europe for the year.