IPO on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM)

When company managers and directors plan to issue an initial public offering, they should consider both its obvious advantages and potential difficulties. Preparing and issuing an IPO is a time-consuming process that entails significant expenses and numerous risks. Therefore, an opportunity to simplify the necessary procedures and lower the related costs often becomes the deciding argument in favour of IPO for mid-sized and growing Russian companies.

Placement of shares on the AIM offers just such an opportunity. The rules for holding an IPO on this market are especially attractive to mid-sized market players whose priorities are:

  • reasonable minimal requirements for issuers;
  • a reasonable cost of attracting investments;
  • a reasonable timeframe for preparing and issuing an IPO.
A nominated adviser acts as regulator of an initial public offering on the AIM, which drastically simplifies the process and helps to keep the costs down.

These and other benefits make the AIM one of the leading markets in Europe. Additionally, for interested issuers an initial public offering on the AIM is a direct route to placing and listing shares on the main London Stock Exchange.Taking into account the obvious advantages for Russian businesses of operations on the AIM, we provide a wide range of legal services for supporting IPOs on this market. Our professional staff has unique experience related to share placement on the AIM by large and mid-sized Russian companies.

We provide full legal support during the IPO process in cooperation with other law firms of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Legal global network. We participate in developing integrated strategies for helping our clients achieve the maximum benefit of share placement.

At the IPO planning stage:

  • We assist company management in developing a corporate restructuring scenario for entering the AIM.

At the restructuring stage:

  • Our professional staff provides legal support for restructuring. If necessary we engage the foreign firms of our global network for the registration of holdings in foreign jurisdictions.
  • We conduct independent due diligence of the company. We estimate its preparedness for share placement, identify material legal risks and participate in developing an action plan for their elimination.

At the stage of drafting documents for IPO:

  • The experienced professionals of PricewaterhouseCoopers CIS Law Offices participate in developing an offering memorandum and market presentation. Taking into consideration the role of these documents in the whole IPO process, our lawyers assist in minimising the risks related to information disclosure. This service provides for better protection of the company and its directors from potential claims on the part of investors.