The PLUS market continues to attract new companies, M&A and fund-raising activity. In June 2008, PLUS saw six companies join its primary markets, five of which were new admissions to its PLUS-quoted market for growth companies.
On the PLUS-listed market – an EU Regulated Market for listed securities seeking admission to the Official List – PLUS attracted its very first listing, with Mears Group choosing to dual list its securities on the PLUS-listed when it moved from AIM to the Official List on 23 June 2008.
Notable new companies joining the PLUS-quoted market included:- Fluid Leader Group (market cap: £70m), offering companies a solution to improve maintenance of oil and gas pipelines using a new “Reinforcing System”
- Pegasus Helicopter Group (market cap: £23m), a manufacturer of low cost helicopter kits; and
- Pulse Group (market cap: £9m), a leading provider of research process outsourced services within the Asia-Pacific region.
Noteworthy M&A activity on the market included: First London Securities announcing its intention to acquire four asset management funds owned by Belgravia Financial Services Group (value: £29m); and Europe Steel’s recommended acquisition by Ferrous Metal Company (value: £6.4m).
Since the start of this year, 24 new companies have been admitted to the PLUS-quoted market with ten more applications already received. Overall, PLUS is enjoying a steady increase in the net number of companies, versus other growth markets which are seeing a decline. Moreover, fundraising levels continue to grow year on year with the first six months (January to June 2008) recording £42.4 million raised by PLUS-quoted companies, a 38% increase from last year (Jan to June 2007: £30.7 million).
“PLUS Markets is enjoying robust primary activity in M&A and fundraising. More importantly, many new companies are looking for straightforward and cost-effective access to London’s capital markets. Even in these current challenging market conditions, we’re enjoying a strong and busy pipeline,” said Head of Capital Markets Paul Haddock.
