16-17-de-listing.qxp 17/2/09 08:13 Page 16
MARKET DE-LISTINGS
Departure lounge
Robert Tyerman reports on the numerous and varied reasons why an increasing
number of companies are currently choosing to exit London’s junior market
W
hatever hurdles companies attractive offshore Indian assets – which of the heights
wishing to float their shares on have subsequently lost some of their appeal. reached during
29.8%
AIM may face in today’s tough That total of 79 compares with the 36 the peak of the
market conditions, many of those leaving companies which left because they had resources boom
Percentage of
the London Stock Exchange’s junior market gone into administration. In addition, in 2005.
companies taken
over or merged
by de-listing can also prove how useful AIM eight de-listed because their nominated On a more
has been for them. advisers resigned, seven left because their modest scale,
Of the 227 companies which have had listings were cancelled under the AIM rules Cambridge-based
their shares de-listed from AIM in 2008, after their shares had been suspended for six CeNes Pharmaceuticals, which had lost
research carried out by M&A Magazine shows months and the total was swollen by two money and stock market favour developing
that the biggest single component – with 61 insolvencies, six liquidations and a handful a post-operative pain drug and other pain
companies in all – did so because their of companies still intending to do a deal and treatments, welcomed a bid worth £11
shareholders had accepted takeover bids. return to the market after their six months’ million from Paion AG, a German specialist
Reverse takeovers, where companies issue suspension had expired. in innovative therapeutic treatments. Paion
shares to buy other companies whose Another 33 de-listed at their own request, offered paper so that CeNes holders would
vendors, as a result, usually end up with a following the required authorisation from 75 finish with shares quoted on Frankfurt’s
Regulated Market.
Last autumn, media entrepreneur
“Many of those leaving the London Stock Exchange’s junior market
Michael Danson, who founded the
by de-listing can also prove how useful AIM has been for them”
Datamonitor group before selling out in a
£500 million deal, launched a £12 million
agreed bid for AIM-quoted SPG Media,
controlling stake in the bidder, accounted per cent of the shareholding, usually operator of controlled circulation
for another ten de-listings. Seven mergers because the plans which would have made magazines, internet reference portals and
took companies off the AIM board and an AIM quote useful had not come to business conferences. SPG’s chairman
there was one management buy-out. fruition. These include leisure and consumer Stephen Davidson welcomed the 13p a
Another 30 companies either moved from investment hopeful Chariot (UK), which share cash bid from Danson’s Progressive
AIM to another exchange, most often the pulled out after several prospective deals Capital, arguing SPG’s depressed pre-bid
full LSE, but occasionally to the more junior came to nothing, and stockbroking and share price ‘failed to reflect the company’s
PLUS-quoted market, or reverted to a investment concern IAF Group, which underlying value, while the bid offered
foreign listing they had had before. Since blamed market volatility, recruitment shareholders ‘a cash exit’ and SPG itself
AIM is often seen as an ante-room for the problems and ‘a dearth of IPOs’. access to investment needed to deliver
full LSE or another market, such sustainable long-term growth.
movements are entirely appropriate and BIDS AND DEALS Another Canadian group, Calgary-based
cannot necessarily be seen as setbacks. Takeovers came in many shapes and sizes to Solana Resources, with oil and gas prospects
Thus, 79 companies de-listed for mostly take companies off the AIM lists. In one of in the South American state of Colombia,
positive reasons, with another 30 the larger deals in AIM’s history, Italian oil took the merger route when it agreed to
moving either up to a more giant ENI bought First Calgary Petroleum, a combine with Gran Tierra Energy, another
16.2%
senior market or PLUS or Canadian resources group with abundant Calgary entity, with interests in Colombia,
back to their primary natural gas reserves in Algeria, for the Peru and Argentina. Solana’s chief
Percentage of
companies going
overseas listing. One move equivalent of £494 million, paying a near- executive officer J Scott Price joined the
into administration to the Full List was Hardy 100 per cent premium over the shares’ board of the combined group, which both
Oil & Gas, with potentially previous low points, though only a fraction parties argued would now be of a size to
16 Mergers & Acquisitions
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72