Key messages from the annual Quoted Companies Alliance & UHY Hacker Young Corporate Governance Behaviour Review
It will be interesting to see what effect, if any, improved Corporate Governance will have on the ability for AIM to retain a healthy number of Nomads operating in the space.
UHY Hacker Young claimed in June this year that a lack of Nomads had "forced 151 companies, including 15 in the last year, to leave AIM, resulting in a ‘huge loss in investor value’", and that "a shortage of new IPOs, tighter regulation and poor corporate governance" was to blame for the decline.
Following a change to the rules in September of this year, AIM companies must explain how they comply with a “recognised corporate governance code” and this year's recently published Behaviour Review has identified the following key messages:
• Boards need to improve on telling shareholders why the decisions they make are in the best interests of the company as a whole
• Investors want companies to focus on what is important and move beyond the comfort of boilerplate and cut- and-paste disclosures
• Companies should view the annual report and accounts as the ‘shop window’
• Companies need to make it easier for investors to come to their conclusions”