Changes to the AIM Rules are coming into effect on 11 August 2014 – one of which is a change to the information that needs to be provided on an AIM company's website (AIM Rule 26). Companies with securities admitted to trading on AIM need to take action soon in order to comply with the new rules.
We have campaigned for better corporate governance disclosure by all small and mid-size quoted companies for many years. The London Stock Exchange has now changed its AIM Rule 26 to require all AIM companies to provide on their website:
details of the corporate governance code that the AIM company has decided to apply, how the AIM company complies with that code, or if no code has been adopted this should be stated together with its current corporate governance arrangements
AIM companies may decide to base their governance on the UK Corporate Governance Code, the QCA Corporate Governance Code for Small and Mid-Size Quoted Companies, another code or none at all: the important thing is to be open and transparent with shareholders and earn and deserve the respect of shareholders for the governance decisions that are made. The London Stock Exchange in its Inside AIM newsletter (Issue 2, July 2010) endorsed the use of the QCA Corporate Governance Code for AIM companies.
AIM companies need to carefully consider how they will satisfy the new AIM Rule 26 obligation and what code they will apply because the decision as to which code is applied may have implications on not only corporate governance affairs but also the manner in which an audit is conducted and reported on.
Earlier this year, we published the QCA/UHY Hacker Young Corporate Governance Behaviour Review, which benchmarked corporate governance disclosures made by 100 small and mid-size quoted companies against the minimum disclosures outlined in our Corporate Governance Code for Small and Mid-Size Quoted Companies. We hope that this review will help your company prepare for this change by highlighting areas to focus on in developing your AIM Rule 26 governance disclosures.
