AIM dividend payouts to smash £1bn mark, says report

SHAREHOLDER payouts from firms listed on London’s junior AIM market are set to soar past the £1billion mark in 2018 for the first time, new research shows.

Dividends paid by UK companies listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) are expected to reach £1.16billion this year, almost tripling since 2012, according to the inaugural annual AIM Dividend Monitor from Link Asset Services. Investors in AIM-listed companies have enjoyed annual growth of 18.6 per cent on average over the last six years – almost four times faster than the 4.9 per cent growth seen on divis from firms listed on the main market.

And the research estimates the rate of growth will hit a new record this year, at 19.6 per cent. The report also believes AIM divis will continue their record-breaking streak, estimating 2019 will see another alltime high of more than £1.3billion paid out.

Justin Cooper, chief executive of Link Market Services, said: “We rightly associate AIM with young companies, hungry for capital to grow. The value of capital being returned to investors via dividends is still much smaller than the amount being raised for investment, but the speed at which dividends are growing shows more and more companies are coming of age, and reaching that important milestone where they generate more cash than they absorb.”

The AIM market was launched in 1995 as a growth market dedicated to small and medium-sized companies.