london stock exchange welcomes first australian

London Stock Exchange welcomes first Australian
The London Stock Exchange today welcomed Gippsland Limited to AIM, its international market for smaller, growing companies.

Gippsland, a mineral resources business, is the first Australian company to join AIM via the recently introduced Designated Markets route, which offers companies already quoted on one of 9 overseas markets an expedited admission process to AIM. It is the seventh international company to use the Designated Markets route as a fast-track to an AIM quotation since its introduction last May.

Martin Graham, Head of AIM, said:

"We are delighted to welcome Gippsland to AIM, the world’s most successful market for smaller, growing companies. Gippsland joins a large number of Australian companies already quoted on AIM and, with the Designated Markets admission process and the recent addition of two Australian Nominated Advisers, we expect to welcome more in the future."

Australia has the largest number of non-UK companies on AIM, and Gippsland joins 14 Australian companies already quoted on the market with a combined market value of £620 million.

In addition, the Exchange expects to welcome two more Western Australian companies, Aztec Resources and Albidon Limited, to AIM by the end of the month. Albidon will be the second company to be brought to AIM by Australian based Nominated Adviser, RFC.

AIM is the London Stock Exchange's international market for young and growing companies. As at the end of February 2004, there were 761 AIM companies, up from 703 at the same time in 2003. Of these, 61 are international companies (2003: 50 international).

In 2003, 162 new companies joined AIM, including 66 IPOs raising over £1 billion, with AIM alone accounting for 60% of all IPOs in Western Europe (with the London Stock Exchange as a whole accounting for 78% of all IPOs in Western Europe). The number of shares traded on AIM more than doubled from 24.8 billion in 2002 to 57.7 billion in 2003, with the value of shares traded rising from £3.5 billion to £6.6 billion over the same period.