Skip to main content

Silicon valley firms look to London's AIM

We knew that foreign resource and mining companies had flocked to London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in recent years, but it still came as a bit of a shock to learn that Silicon Valley firms were looking to do the same.

The front page of today's Financial Times carried this report by Chris Nutall:

Dozens of Silicon Valley companies are lining up to float on Aim, London's junior market, as US businesses weigh up ways to raise funds at home amid the high cost of going public under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

More than 100 technology companies have been considering listing on Aim, say industry insiders. London Stock Exchange officials have made at least six visits to the Bay area in the past year to hold seminars and raise awareness.

Gary Benton, a technology lawyer for 22 years in the area and a partner in the Palo Alto offices of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, said the level of interest in the London market was unprecedented.

"Even though Aim has been around for 12 years, no one paid attention to it until six months ago. Since then there's been a pretty steep curve of interest."

As the FT's report mentions, the high costs and hassles associated with Sarbanes-Oxley are driving smaller corporations away from America's financial markets. Instead, these firms hope to find refuge from such burdensome regulation by listing abroad.

Last March, in a commentary on exchange consolidation (see, "Exchange Fever"), I repeated the following arguments regarding SOX's negative impact on the financial markets:

The effect that such onerous legislation may have on smaller public companies is not the exclusive concern of overseas market professionals. Eliot Spitzer has now joined the chorus of critics that say Sarbanes-Oxley has overstepped its bounds and creates "an unbelievable burden for small companies." Amazingly, this same criticism has been leveled by Representative Michael Oxley, co-author of the legislation. Oxley has even urged the SEC to roll back some of the burdens facing smaller companies.

As we can see, the regulatory environment is not only taking its toll on existing companies, it's also drawing new listings away from the NYSE, Nasdaq, and AMEX.

Popular posts from this blog

Seth Klarman: Margin of Safety (pdf)

Welcome, readers! Signup for free email updates at the Finance Trends Newsletter . Update: PDF links removed due to DMCA notice. Please see our extensive Klarman book notes below. New visitors, please check the Finance Trends home page for all new posts. Here's something for anyone who has been trying to get a look at Seth Klarman's now famous, and out of print, 1991 investment book, Margin of Safety .  My knowledge of value investing is pretty much limited to what I've read in Ben Graham's The Intelligent Investor (the book which originally popularized the investment concept of a "Margin of Safety"), so check out the wisdom from Seth Klarman and other investing greats in our related posts below. You can also go straight to Ronald Redfield's Margin of Safety book notes .    Related posts: 1. Seth Klarman interviews and Margin of Safety notes     2. Seth Klarman: Lessons from 2008 3. Investing Lessons from Sir John Templeton 4.

Moneyball: How the Red Sox Win Championships

Welcome, readers . T o get the first look at brand new posts (like the following piece) and to receive our exclusive email list updates, please subscribe to the Finance Trends Newsletter .   The Boston Red Sox won their fourth World Series title of t he 21st century this we ek. Having won their first Se ries in 86 years back in 200 4, the last decade-plus has marked a very strong return to form for one of baseball's oldest big league clubs. So how did they do it? Quick background: in late 2002, team own er and hedge fund manager, John W. Henry (with his partners ) bought the Boston Red Sox and its historic Fenway Park for a reported sum of $ 695 million. Henry and Co. quickly set out to find their ideal General Manager (GM) to help turn around their newly acquired, ailing ship. This brings us to one of my fav orite scenes from the 2011 film , Moneyball , in which John W. Henry (played by Ar liss Howard) attempts to woo Oakland A's GM Billy Beane (Brad Pi

William O'Neil Interview: How to Buy Winning Stocks

Investor's B usiness Daily founder and veteran stock trader, William O'Neil share d his trading methods and insights on buying winning stocks in an in-depth IBD radio interview. Here are some highlights from William O'Neil's interview with IBD: William O'Neil's interest in the stock market began when he started working as a young adult.  "I say many times that I didn't get that much out of college. I didn't have much interest in the stock market until I graduated from college. When I got married, I had to look out into the future and get more serious. The investment world had some appeal and that's when I started studying it. I became a stock broker after I got out of the Air Force."    He moved to Los Angeles and started work in a stock broker's office with twenty other guys. When their phone leads from ads didn't pan out, O'Neil would take the leads and drive down to visit the prospective customers in person.