UK 00:03 Tuesday, 22 September 2026
Breaking news and expert analysis on fast-moving AIM and LSE listed shares
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from ShareProphets). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Now that the Placing is all off (quite how they calculated whose EGM votes counted is a bit of a mystery, but I shall return to that in a moment) we are told that the company is now planning to go ahead with an Open Offer which we were previously told would be underwritten by Cornhill – the placing agent now with no placing to place.
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Comments
VINES
‘This is the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. The market with regulators who do not regulate.’
thats because aim is an “unregulated market segment”, it says on wiki
DUCK AND DIVE
The LSE won’t sort this out beyond wiping their own feet. The FCA needs to act – and if they don’t step in urgently then someone needs to call ESMA.
https://www.esma.europa.eu/page/Investor-Protection-Intermediaries-SC
nigel somerville
Vines – point taken. What I know is that there is a body within the LSE called ‘AIM regulation’. AIM has rules and Nomads are supposed to ensure compliance by the companies under their charge. There is also a Financial Conduct Authority. So there is a pretence at regulation of some sort. Problem is the regulation is systemically and fatally flawed.
VINES
i did some reading and found out fca dont do aim. aim was regulated until 2004 then became unregulated. that words not very nice to investors ears so it uses nicer words like exchange-regulated or self-regulated. the ‘aim regulation’ sign you mention is like a corner shop man who doesnt have cctv to protect his goods putting a cardboard sign up in the window saying cctv here as you might as well fake it if you got nothing
nigel somerville
Vines – it certainly is all smoke and mirrors! As I understand it, the regulation of AIM largely falls to AIM Regulation when it comes to compliance with market rules. However when it comes to issues such as fraud, market abuse, insider dealing and such like then these are matters for the FCA. The Takeover Panel also has rules which apply equally to AIM as to the main market. Then there are other bodies too (total number of regulatory bodies which can be drawn in is something of the order of ten).
However all this is only of any use if one or more of these bodies actually steps up to the plate when things go wrong. In such a fragmented arrangement there is no clarity as to who is in charge (just as it was Re the banking crisis under Gordon Brown’s tripartite system). They all leave it to each other and nothing happens .
AIM is supposed to be regulated. There is a rule book. There is a body with powers to enforce those rules. I have only found four examples of AIM Regulation publicly sanctioning miscreants in the last five years. That is why we have so little faith in the chocolate teapots.
Peter
Perhaps those who are concerned should consider writing letters to their MPs requesting their opinion and asking him/her to question the FCA.. A good constituent MP is likely to get some response from the FCA on behalf of his constituents. Whether that response would be useful is perhaps another matter!
However it would be worth a try I feel. My local MP, who is a good constituent MP, has responded positively to letters in the past.
J P Spaghetti
VINES – sorry if I’m repeating what others have said in later posts (my laptop takes an age) but I don’t think anyone is disagreeing with you. Having corresponded with AIM 20 7797 4154) myself on more than one occasion it certainly seems to exist, though quite how effective it is…?! As I’ve commented before, if regulation is nothing or little more than a mere pretence than it can be self-defeating by causing investors to lower their guard.