What type of companies make up the AIM index?

Staci West 07/09/2023 in UK

Eustace Santa Barbara, co-manager of the IFSL Marlborough Special Situations fund, breaks down the AIM market, in which around 60% of the fund is invested. Eustace explains which types of companies are listed on AIM, the London Stock Exchange’s junior market, highlighting one example of a holding within the fund.

Watch our full-length interview with Eustace.

Eustace Santa Barbara: Around 60% of our fund is invested in companies listed on AIM, which is the London Stock Exchange’s junior market – designed for younger, faster growing companies. More than 700 companies are listed on AIM, and while the FTSE 100 is dominated by oil and gas, mining, financial services companies, the businesses on AIM are spread across a far greater range of sectors, from green energy and biotech to cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. So, there’s a diverse range of opportunities and greater potential to invest in sectors [that] we believe will be the growth areas of tomorrow.

Increasingly too, the AIM market is offering global opportunities; around one third of AIM’s companies are now headquartered – or have the majority of their operations – outside of the UK. For experienced stock pickers like us, we believe AIM is a fertile hunting ground with some really exciting opportunities. One AIM company we’ve held for a number of years and continue to believe has strong growth prospects is YouGov [plc], the market research and data analytics firm. In July, YouGov raised just over £50m through a placing of new shares to help fund the acquisition of data giant GfK’s [European] Consumer Panel business. This is YouGov’s largest acquisition to date, and we believe it should help drive further growth.

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