The London Stock Exchange Welcomes Four New Companies To Its Markets In The First Three Days Of The Month

The London Stock Exchange will this week welcome four new companies to its markets. The companies - Civica, Torex Retail, Cambridge Silicon Radio and Ark Therapeutics - have a combined market capitalisation of over £600 million and are raising over £100 million in total.

These new companies bring the total number of new issues so far this year to 26 which have together raised over £245 million. In the same period last year, just £27.96 million had been raised through new issues.

Commenting, Martin Graham, the Exchange's Director of Market Services and Head of AIM, said "These floations visibly demonstrate the strength of London's markets and are a sign of increased confidence in the new issues market. With a healthy pipeline we hope to welcome many more companies in the next few months."

Civica plc began official trading on AIM on 1 March with a market capitalisation of £80 million, having raised £15 million. Torex Retail joined AIM through a placing on 2 March with an initial market capitalisation of £60 million.

Cambridge Silicon Radio began official trading on the Main Market on 2 March with a market capitalisation of £296 million, raising £39 million. Ark Therapeutics will also join the Main Market and will begin grey market trading on 3 March. Its market capitalisation is estimated to be around £200 million and looks set to raise an estimated £50 million. Both companies will join techMARK.

Over the whole of 2003 the Exchange attracted 201 new issues, including 86 IPOs raising £4.5 billion between them and accounting for 78% of all IPOs in Western Europe.