Fading AIM market expected to grow again

Analysts from business advisory firm Deloitte have predicted that the second half of 2010 will see the AIM market bottom out with 1,200 companies listed.

Following 30 months of falling numbers, Deloitte's analysts predict that the market will reach its lowest point before the end of the year but then start to grow again in 2011.

A number of high-profile Yorkshire companies have delisted from AIM in recent years, including Sheffield United, which decided to go private. Earlier this month, shares in Leeds-based vehicle tracking firm Minorplanet Systems were cancelled on AIM, following its takeover by Digicore.

Roger Esler, corporate finance and debt advisory partner at Deloitte in Leeds, said the past six months have shown some positive characteristics, with a modest uptake in the numbers of companies listing on both the main and the junior markets.

"There has been a steady increase in the levels of activity with the second quarter of this year seeing 18 new listings, compared with just eight in the same period last year.

"This is an increase from the 16 new admissions we saw in the first quarter. This has coincided with the rate of companies leaving the market slowing in recent times, meaning that we may shortly see an end to the long decline in the number of listed companies on AIM."