Manchester meeting brings together listed firms

The head of the London Stock Exchange Group headed to Manchester yesterday in order to check out local businesses.

Xavier Rolet met with senior executives from the city’s AIM-listed biotech firm Epistem, Leeds-based Straight plc, Rochdale’s Vindon Healthcare and Sheffield’s Zoo Digital.

The trip reflects the nationwide reach of the AIM index, the London exchange’s specialist growth market.

Mr Rolet said: ’I am delighted to have the opportunity today to hear from local companies and advisers about their experience of our markets. In today’s challenging conditions for financial markets and business, keeping abreast of the latest developments in the market is more essential than ever, and forums such as this help us understand what we can do to support the companies on our markets.

’We are committed to helping companies make the most of their AIM quotation, and are supporting the wider take-up of equity research, running a regional investor road show programme, and are continuing to urge the Government to give Venture Capital Trusts greater freedom in the investments they make in small cap companies’.

Around 1,450 companies are listed on the AIM.

Figures from the London Stock Exchange group suggest that this total includes 1,156 firms incorporated in the UK which employ over 250,000 people in total.ADNFCR-2318-ID-19245297-ADNFCR