Asite is not the only business proposing to de-list from London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM – see post and follow-up). According to The Guardian, research by law firm Trowers & Hamlyn shows that de-listings are up a record 33% in the year to March 2009, as the credit crunch forces many to the wall. Financial stress, insolvency, and the decreased availability of nominated financial advisers (nomads) are all playing their part.
De-listing Asite from AIM will free the company from the associated costs of regulatory compliance and will also mean its affairs are subject to less public scrutiny – Asite would have been obliged to report its final results for the year ending 31 December 2008 in the next couple of months. For keen industry-watchers like me, this is a shame as it would have been an interesting indicator of the impact the current recession in the AEC sector has had on construction collaboration technology vendors. (Asite shares bounced back late last week, up to 0.875p from the previous record low.)
However, the public profile of some of Asite’s shareholders will probably not diminish. Robert Tchenguiz, for example, was the subject of an in-depth article by Simon Bowers in yesterday’s Observer newspaper: Tchenguiz’s Icelandic saga with a bitter ending, regarding loan arrangements with Icelandic bank Kaupthing.
