A group of Quoted Companies Alliance members was invited to Downing Street for talks about promoting and boosting the attractiveness of the AIM growth market.
The meeting was hosted by the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Emma Reynolds MP, and the Prime Minister’s Special Advisor on Business & Investment, Varun Chandra.
Members discussed how trading on AIM has supported their growth, but also the challenges faced by a lack of liquidity in their shares, excessive and time-consuming reporting requirements and the Financial Conduct Authority’s oversight of investment in small and microcaps.
The six companies represented – SkinBioTherapeutics, Bango, Cohort, Newmark Security, Built Cybernetics and Netcall – have a collective worth of almost £1 billion and operate in fast-growing areas identified as part of the government’s industrial strategy: biotech, payments, defence, workplace systems, smart buildings and telecoms.
They generate £150m in overseas sales annually and support more than 2000 jobs in Newcastle, Cambridge, Reading, Plymouth, London, Bedford, Dorset and Lincolnshire.
The group was supported by key smallcap investors Liontrust Asset Management, Octopus Investments and BGF, as well as Marcus Stuttard, Head of AIM and UK Primary Markets at the London Stock Exchange.
James Ashton, the QCA’s CEO, pointed out that supporting AIM companies supported the government’s mission to kickstart economic growth and drive living standards higher in every part of the UK by the end of the Parliament.
As AIM’s 30th anniversary nears in June, the QCA is pushing for more growth capital to be channelled into companies trading on AIM as well as Aquis. This includes fixing the Mansion House Compact so that pensions providers back unlisted equities more widely and adapting the British Business Bank to support public companies in addition to private.
In the last year, the QCA has increased investment in public affairs to better communicate members’ value as well as our calls for proportionate capital market reform. This has resulted in more meetings with ministers, senior government officials and regulators.
We have also embarked on grassroots engagement by writing to every MP with a QCA member in their constituency offering a company meeting. Many meetings are being scheduled UK-wide during 2025.
