UK 19:53 Friday, 23 October 2026
Breaking news and expert analysis on fast-moving AIM and LSE listed shares
AIM Regulation and the FCA’s inability or unwillingness to tackle rampant market abuse involving the illegal forward selling of placements on AIM has cost companies and shareholders hundreds of millions of pounds. The problem has become so widespread that it is widely seen as the cost of doing business in the lower reaches of the market. This is unacceptable and two current CEOs of AIM-listed businesses have spoken out about the parlous state of play. Below I share the first testimonial, given on the condition of anonymity.
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Comments
wildrides
Not much of a story …………. This CEO needs to grow some . Nothing will be achieved by remaining in the shadows sniping . The actions described is how the brokers make their living ……… by being bent and on the inside . The whole city depends on it and AIM regulation incorperates it . Tell him to use Toms crowd funding mate instead .
DUCK AND DIVE
Good piece with plenty of insight to help the mug punters appreciate what goes on.
CEO1 may have no more than a strong suspicion that his broker stitched him up but I hope that was enough to at least ditch the broker and find another who agreed in writing to work on more honourable terms.
The proposal to import the ASX rule of suspending a share for a fundraising would help but it wouldn’t eradicate the problem: pre-flippers would simply get to work earlier in the timeline.
But we could also look at importing the Aussies’ Controlled Placement Agreement whereby discounts are limited to a maximum of 10%.
VINES
‘‘We were at a loss to explain the sudden drop. We wondered at the time whether it was because we hadn’t shared anything new in the presentation ‘’
does this guy think his stocks that bad that a presentation with no new news is a reason for the shares to collapse? lol
J P Spaghetti
Perhaps the ASX should bring pressure to bear on the LSE to at least force dual-listed companies to suspend their shares in anticipation of a fundraising. Maybe this would then go on to be applied across the board. Have a word Ben – flippers having to start their machinations earlier would be reason enough!
Batman
I know who these “different investors” were, absolute scum and will be forwarding names to Ben to investigate further. They are very active on twitter and various bulletin boards, they think they are above the law but have loose tongues, tick tock
Ben Turney
@wildrides – Apart from the obvious crooks, the more I’ve come to appreciate exactly what AIM is the more I realise how much it corrupts otherwise decent people. It seems to me that as soon as you become a director in this market you are instantly faced with a choice of compromising your principles. It’s all well and good to take a principled stand but as an executive of a listed company there is no incentive to do so. In fact you (and your shareholders) are punished for it. As for the crowd funding model, it seems ordinary people are far more content to throw their money away in the secondary market rather than come to terms with what genuine direct investment in companies requires.
@duck and dive – Excellent point about the Australian 10% rule. I’ve covered this before but the cannibalistic discounts demanded on AIM are so counter productive. What point is there buying and selling shares if you can be nearly certain that genuine value building is near impossible as when the next placement comes around it is going to knock the share price for six. Perhaps this view is overly coloured by the weakness in the resource market over the last few years, but I do like the 10% principle.
@Vines – no the point was there that the management team was struggling to understand what was happening, while they were going through it. Given PIs obsession with news flow this was not an entirely unreasonable alternative to speculate on.
@Batman – ben@shareprophets.com
Czech Mate (aka Janos)
Doubtless the market is rife with shenanigans, and my view might be overly harsh. However, if a company is in such a poor state that it must raise money regardless of the terms it can arrange, then it’s a bust and the failure to build value is entirely its own responsibility.
The companies which don’t need to raise any money are the ones whose equity is probably worth something very different to zero.