The past few years have been brutal for firms listed on UK stock markets and particularly for smaller companies, as a report by research group New Financial spells out. The number of small companies – those with a market value of less than £1billion – has dropped by nearly a third, equivalent to the loss of 600 quoted businesses. Prior to the financial crisis, around 300 smaller companies a year were pouring on to the stock market. By contrast, private equity is an increasingly significant source of capital: the value of takeovers of smaller companies has almost doubled in recent years. One idea is to push, or even compel, pension funds to invest more in UK shares in general and smaller companies in particular.

Source: Daily Mail October 20, 2024 20:57 UTC