York could increase its profile as a hub for science and technology if businesses raised their ambitions by listing on AIM, Julie Hayes reports

YORK could increase its profile as a hub for science and technology if businesses raised their ambitions by listing on AIM, representatives from the London Stock Exchange said when visiting the city.

Marcus Stuttard, head of growth market AIM, at the London Stock Exchange, spoke to businesses at an event on finding finance held by SCY, where the managing director of AIM-listed Surgical Innovations, Graham Bowland, told businesses how listing could help York raise its game in the science sector.

Mr Bowland, who has been awarded funding from the Regional Growth Fund for plans to create a healthcare cluster around the company's base in Leeds, said that Surgical Innovations has multiplied its workforce by five since listing on AIM following a merger in 1999. He said the company, which manufactures instruments used in keyhole surgery, had a market capital of £1 million and was losing money at the time, but staged a turnaround and was able to return to the market to raise more money in 2007.

He said: “We have increased our workforce from 30 to 150, which is a phenomenal number of people. That's all sprung out of being on AIM and having that high profile enabled us to export and deal with more high-profile international companies in the United States.”

Mr Stuttard added: "AIM is about companies coming to the market, almost regardless of size to use it as a platform for future growth. That's not just for raising capital at the time of floatation, but the benefit of being able to come back for institutional investor capital as companies continue to grow and develop.

"You can see in the city this cluster effect in which smaller sectors drive each other and attract even more high-quality people to work here."

Nicola Spence, chief executive of Science City York, said: "Businesses that are going to go on to AIM are going to be high-growth businesses. We want to identify businesses with the potential to grow and develop and which aspire to being floated, and provide them with coaching and mentoring services to look at their innovation performance, what's holding them back and what steps they need to take to be ready to float."

Mrs Spence held up Avacta, a spin-out of the University of Leeds, which grew up at York Science park and has now "grown and flown" through AIM.

She said: "To me that's success and we want to take businesses and grow and develop them and let them achieve greatness. It's good for them and good for the region and it raises everyone's ambitions."

Tissue Regenix, another AIM-listed business based at York Science Park, is also on the cusp of flying as successful clinical trials come back.

But Mr Stuttard said that some businesses don't seem to think they're big enough for AIM. He said: "Historically there has been a view that floating and being a public company is just associated with the FTSE 100 - the Vodafones and BPs of the world. But the whole regulatory structure we have developed for AIM is about supporting companies to grow and develop."

Mr Bowland added: "The financial disciplines aren't onerous - reporting every six months is vital for financial discipline anyway. You should have them anyway. A lot of growing businesses don't and they will fail."