The Flotation Celebration: AIM boom offers investors access to 'exciting' high-growth companies

Buzz over success of health and energy companies

IPOs and placings across the UK equity market could "surpass the highs of the past decade" according to some industry commentators, who said the recent surge of young companies floating onto the AIM is providing UK equity investors access to "exciting" high-growth companies across healthcare, clean energy and tech sectors.

Over the course of 2020, the FTSE AIM All-Share index - which has greater regulatory flexibility to allow young companies to float onto the market - returned 21.8% to investors while its blue-chip FTSE 100 counterpart trailed in the dust with a loss of 11.6%, according to data from FE fundinfo. While the AIM index proved hardest hit during March's market sell-off, having tumbled by 38% over the first three months of the year, it had already recovered its losses by October as fiscal and monetary policy bolstered market sentiment. During the second half of the year alone, 13 IPOs floate...