Euronext Launching Alternative Market To Rival London’s AIM

by Phillip Morton, Investors Offshore.com

08 September 2004

European trading exchange operator Euronext is poised to launch a new alternative investment market intended to rival the London Stock Exchange’s successful small cap market, the AIM.

The new market, to be known as Alternext, will be open for business early next year and according to Euronext chief executive Jean-Francois Theodore, in London last week to announced the company’s first half results, there has been “spontaneous interest” in the new launch.

Euronext, which operates the Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Lisbon bourses has made no bones about its desire to create a rival to London’s AIM (Alternative Investment Market). “We intend to compete with AIM,” Martine Charbonnier, the European firm’s director of listings remarked in a London Times report.

“We know that we have strong demand, especially coming from the private equity market, and we’ve already seen companies that are willing to be listed there,” she added.

The AIM has been one of the fastest growing markets in the world. Since opening in 1995, more than 1,300 companies have been admitted and more than £11 billion ($19.5 billion, €16.13 billion) has been raised collectively.

New listings have been attracted by the market’s looser admission criteria as compared to the London Stock Exchange. For firms listing on AIM there is no minimum level of market capitalisation or set amount of shares to be held in public hands. Neither is prior shareholder consent required for transactions nor a trading record needed.

Similarly, Alternext will be aimed at firms, both in continental Europe and the UK, seeking a less regulated market, said Ms Charbonnier.

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