IPO frenzy drives AIM to bumper year

£2.2bn generated from 76 flotations in year to 31 March, more than treble 2012/13

The Alternative Investment Market (AIM) has delivered the biggest year for IPOs since the credit crunch.

According to research from UHY Hacker Young, fundraising generated from IPOs on the junior market of the London Stock Exchange more than trebled to £2.2bn in 2013/14 as 76 companies took the plunge.

The 10 AIM IPOs in March 2014 alone generated £671m – almost as much as the £778m generated during the whole of 2012/13 and a record haul since July 2007.

UHY Hacker Young partner Laurence Sacker said: "The AIM IPO market has taken off in a big way so far in 2014.

"There hasn't been a £2bn year for AIM IPOs since the credit crunch, so this is a significant milestone in the junior market's return to growth."

Departures from AIM also remain low, UHY Hacker Young said, with 80 firms exiting the market in 2013/14 compared with 290 at the peak of the recession in 2008/09. And only 22 of these left due to financial stress and insolvency, compared with 34 delistings due to takeovers.

Sacker said: "Delistings from the market continue to run at a very low level, and of those that do leave, a majority are doing so for positive reasons, such as being taken over, or graduating to the main market.

"The AIM companies that survived the difficult years of 2008 to 2011 are generally in good financial health. Those lean times weeded out a lot of the weaker companies, and a significant number of those that remain will be seen as viable M&A targets."