Press releases 2004

AIM reaches 1000 company milestone

10 December 2004

AEC Education joins AIM bringing the total number of companies on the market to 1000.

The number of companies on AIM, the London Stock Exchange’s global market for smaller, growing companies, reached 1000 today with the admission of AEC Education limited.

To mark the occasion, Directors of AEC Education opened the London market at 8:00am by setting off the Source.  They were welcomed to AIM by Clara Furse, Chief Executive of the London Stock Exchange.

Clara Furse, said:

“We are delighted to welcome AEC Education to AIM.  2004 has been a particularly successful year for the market, with AIM emerging as a mainstream asset class, firmly established as a key component of the London equity market offering.”

AEC Education is the UK-registered parent company for a number of companies whose business is the provision of educational programmes and services in Singapore and Malaysia.  The company raised £750,000 on its AIM admission and has a market capitalisation of approximately £6.1 million.

Martin Graham, Head of AIM and Director of Market Services at the London Stock Exchange, added:

“AEC’s admission highlights the increasingly international profile of AIM as it approaches its tenth anniversary year in 2005.  AIM is the world’s most successful growth market.   We think there is great scope to expand AIM’s international reach and attract more companies, not just from the high growth markets of the Asia-Pacific region, but also from continental Europe, where there is no equivalent successful growth market.”

Of the 1000 companies quoted on AIM, 111 are international companies.   A total of 324 companies have joined AIM so far in 2004 (including today) and since its launch in 1995, a total of £14.39 billion has been raised on AIM (both new issues and further money raised).

So far this year, a total of 382 companies have joined the London Stock Exchange’s markets (AIM and Main Market) raising a total of £3.83 billion (figs to end of November).  From January to the end of November 2004, the London Stock Exchange accounted for 79% of all Western European IPO’s.

For further information, please contact:

Richard Webster-Smith   Press Office  +44 (0)20 7797 1222