If the LSE main list will feel this, AIM, and in turn its advisers, will feel it even more strongly. Nor is it a likely scenario that AIM will replace the more profitable private equity methods of raising capital despite making some recent inroads into it. No wonder, then, that those firms doing well in small-cap corporate finance are spreading out the load of their clients, the banks they work with and the levels of financing they practise. While putting your eggs in one AIM basket may be fine in the short term, the danger that some firms could end up with egg on their face is never far away. There are hints, though, that the foundations of the market are not as firm as the profession would wish.
Corporate finance is the biggest part of the corporate group.
The firm works particularly closely with investment house Seymour Pierce. But this is not to say it only works with Seymour Pierce. Despite a particularly buoyant year, and its long-standing reputation for AIM work, Memery Crystal has not always had it easy. In 1998 the firm felt the pinch of a slumped market, working on only about seven IPOs. But as the market recovered, so the volume of work grew.