Touchstone to join the AIM ‘Dearly Departed’

(By Anthony Miller – Wednesday17th June 2009 7:45am). Mid-market software and services Touchstone is to join the flood of players delisting from AIM. In its FY trading update (see here), CEO Keith Birch presaged ‘in line’ results but bemoaned the “considerable burden” in costs and obligations of sustaining an AIM listing. They expect to launch a limited share buyback “at an appropriate price”. Touchstone launched on AIM in July ’98, placing 2.8m shares at 105p, valuing the company at just under £10m. Their shares closed yesterday at 19p, under £3m market cap.

TechMarketView subscription service clients can see the full list of London market SITS company exits since the beginning of 2008 in April’s IndustryViews Quoted Sector report. We noted that an AIM listing could cost a company £200k a year when you lump in the fees from all the hangers-on (NEDs, Nomads, et al). Touchstone was loss-making at the half-way stage and we’ll add more when we see their full year results in July.