Shares in Hornby were shunted into the siding after the model railway maker announced plans to pack up its tracks and depart AIM, adding to the growing exodus from London’s junior market.
While plenty of companies have waved goodbye to AIM in the past 15 months, citing poor liquidity, constrained access to capital, and eye-watering listing costs, Hornby’s departure has a sparked debate.
Myles Milston, chief executive of Globacap, sees it as another nail in AIM’s coffin. He argues the ‘writing is on the wall’ for the market, which he claims is plagued by low trading volumes, erratic share price movements, and dwindling funding opportunities.
AJ Bell’s Russ Mould says Hornby’s decision is more about its own unique circumstances than AIM’s woes.
The toy train specialist is 91 per cent owned by Phoenix Asset Management and Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group, leaving little reason to maintain a listing.
‘When two shareholders own that much of a company, it doesn’t make sense to stay on AIM,’ Mould said. ‘Public markets are for companies looking to broaden their shareholder base and raise capital. Hornby no longer needs either.’
Leaving the station: Model railway maker Hornby announced plans to pack up its tracks and depart AIM, adding to the growing exodus from London’s junior market
Its shares ended a tumultuous week down 30 per cent at 14.1p.
The Airfix model maker and Scalextric owner’s plans may have caught the eye, but another expected departure better fits the prevailing ‘AIM-is-dead’ narrative: Synairgen.
The biotech, developing an inhaled treatment for respiratory infections, confirmed plans to cancel its listing and go private after failing to meet fundraising targets.
It had hoped to raise £2.9million to stay public, alongside an £18million investment from TFG Asset Management. But after securing only £2.2million in commitments, it fell short.
With majority shareholder TFG backing the move, Synairgen’s exit looks inevitable. The stock tumbled 64 per cent to 0.65p.
The AIM All-Share continued its slide, dropping 1.4 per cent to 683.19. Down 5.6 per cent year-to-date, it’s approaching levels last seen at the start of the pandemic, when markets priced in Armageddon as lockdown loomed.
It even managed to underperform the FTSE 100, which was hit by Trump-inspired trade war fears that paralysed international blue-chip markets.
Among the week’s fallers, Thruvision, a specialist in AI-powered threat detection, found itself in an odd predicament.
It was forced to put out an unplanned trading statement after a near-kamikaze dive in its share price early in the week. The update helped, but only slightly—the shares were still down 55 per cent from Monday.
Providing an antidote to the doom and gloom was capAI, the microcap tech fund, which soared 230 per cent.
The catalyst? The appointment of British-American inventor and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Ronjon Nag as an executive director. He runs deep-tech fund R42 and boasts heavyweight connections at Stanford, MIT, and Cambridge.
Paid only if the share price rises, Nag backed himself by writing a £50,000 cheque into capAI’s latest funding round—investors clearly think he’s worth betting on too.
It took a while for the market to catch on, but European Metals finally saw its shares move – 52 per cent higher.
A week ago, the Czech government designated its Cinovec lithium project a ‘strategic deposit’—a move expected to speed up development. Investors took their time digesting the news, but by Friday, the stock had surged.
From lithium to precious metals, Cora Gold climbed 28 per cent after Mali’s government partially lifted its mining permit freeze.
The move clears the way for companies like Cora to advance stalled projects, including its flagship Sanankoro Gold Project. With a key permit re-drawing exercise complete, Cora now plans to fast-track gold mine development.
Finally, one for the watchlist. 4Global shares, down 24 per cent year-to-date, look to be in grossly oversold territory (yes, that’s a technical term).
The company provides data to global sporting event organisers and fitness operators. Completely under the radar was the launch of its AI-powered Insight.
OS tool, which CEO Eloy Mazon called ‘transformational’ for opening up new revenue opportunities.
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