Small firms to get market

THE Irish Stock Exchange’s specialist market for smaller companies will open for business next month, it emerged yesterday.

The Irish Enterprise Exchange (IEX) will be modelled on London's highly-successful Alternative Investment Market (AIM) and will offer smaller companies a route to seek equity funding with fewer regulations and lower costs than a full listing.

Plans for the new market were first announced earlier this year. The stock exchange said it hoped to attract small and medium- sized companies looking to list for the first time, as well as companies with a full listing that wanted to cut costs as well as Irish AIM-quoted companies looking for a dual listing.