PLUS Stock Exchange (PLUS-SX), the cash trading and listing venue, reports significant levels of activity on its primary market during the first half of 2011 with 10 new companies coming to market and existing PLUS-SX companies successfully growing their businesses or being recognised as leaders in their particular fields.
PLUS-SX Companies
The diversity of investment opportunities to be found on PLUS-SX is shown by the wide range of companies that joined in the first half of the year. 10 companies were admitted between January and June. Highlights included:
· AFH Financial, a discretionary Wealth Manager and Independent Financial Advisory firm, was admitted to trading on the PLUS-quoted Market on 23 June. At the same time the company announced a subscription raising £1,757,000.
· Rare Minerals joined the PLUS-quoted Market on 28 April and raised £1,000,000. Rare Minerals backs companies engaged in the prospecting or mining of valuable minerals including rare earth metals.
· Wey Education was admitted to the PLUS-quoted Market on 4 April. The company invests in the education sector which it believes has the potential for rapid growth in turnover and profitability. To support this, the company acquired ZAIL Enterprises Limited just before joining the market. Wey Education’s credentials in this sector are shown by the CEO and founder, Zenna Atkins, who is a former Chairman of OFSTED.
Established PLUS-SX companies were also very active. In June Shepherd Neame, a brewer and pub operator, gave another strong sales update and said that its pub estate had risen in value considerably. While rivals are closing or selling pubs, the company confirmed it is possible to do well from a more traditional approach. In the 48 weeks to 28 May, sales were up 7.7% and the pubs are worth £68 million more than the last time they were valued.
In January Mark Smith, co-founder and Chief Executive of Quercus Publishing, was named Entrepreneur of the Year at the Growth Company Awards and the company was named Publisher of the Year at the 2011 Bookseller Awards in May. The company’s annual revenues have grown to over £30 million, thanks in part to the global successes of the Stieg Larsson trilogy and the multiple Oscar winning film, The King’s Speech.
English Wines Group’s Chapel Down Rose Brut was awarded a Gold Medal at the International
Wine Challenge in May 2011. The company was also reported to have supplied wine to the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in April.
Trading in PLUS-SX Companies
A record number of trades were made in PLUS-SX growth market securities between January and end of June 2011, representing an increase of over 130% in comparison with the same time period in 2010. This builds on the 72% increase in the number of trades PLUS-SX reported for the full year of 2010 (versus full year 2009).
In the first half of 2011, the ten most heavily traded PLUS-SX companies were:
PLUS-SX |
Top 10 securities traded |
Number of Shares |
|
Imperial Music and Media plc All Star Mineral Captive Audience Display Solutions plc Keycom Rare Earth and Metal Eden Research plc Ecovista plc US Oil and Gas Ascot Mining Ezybonds (UK) plc |
100,770,137 61,990,087 53,027,810 43,855,963 40,086,881 36,200,800 26,302,100 16,085,718 12,609,894 12,141,711 |
PLUS-SX also offers full stock coverage under MiFID, including all London-listed shares such as FTSE 100, European liquid shares, and unlisted shares quoted on the AIM and PLUS markets.
Vivienne Cassley from PLUS-SX, said: “The trading of PLUS-SX stocks grew significantly in 2010 and this momentum has continued into 2011 as we bring new and exciting investment opportunities to the market.”
“The type of companies we have attracted so far this year shows the diversity of our market and we expect the new initiatives we announced last month, which actively seek to address the visibility and liquidity challenges facing smaller companies as well as improving the quality of companies coming to PLUS-SX, to make it even more attractive to investors and issuers alike. We are already seeing this in the quality of our pipeline of companies looking to join in the second half of 2011.”