AIM ‘casino’ comment adds to rivalry
It’s front page news on today’s Financial Times (top left, no less, and see Lombard, page 18; subscription required for both), on page 18 in the Wall Street Journal and in a whole host of UK newspapers: US Securities and Exchange Commission official Roel C. Campos called the LSE’s Alternative Investment Market a ‘casino’. One such UK paper is The Times, under the headline, London v New York: top regulator attacks AIM ‘casino’. (It’s also an entry in the WSJ Law Blog’s SEC Roundup of today.)
Campos, an SEC Commissioner, is reported to have cited a Dow Jones Newswires report, saying that 30 per cent of new listings on that market “are gone within a year”, adding that that “feels like a casino to me, and I believe that investors will treat it as such”. NYSE’s John A. Thain’s recently remarked on the regulation of AIM too (previous post). Campos has since retracted, saying that his comments were “taken out of context”.
The truth, as confirmed by an LSE spokesperson, is that this figure is closer to 3 per cent of listed companies going into liquidiation or being taken over, the same as that for the LSE’s main market.
The FT rightly points out that, also considering the swift responses from the LSE and other London market participants and Campos’ equally expeditious retraction of the statement, this is another example of the intensity of the competition between London and New York.
What’s more: Online-Casinos.com has this report on the comments, alongside online game and gambling resources, rules and tools.
What’s more, too: Today’s (12 March 2007) Wall Street Journal adds to the dismissal of Campos’ casino comment in its breakingviews column, from the question “Why do the Americans keep bashing AIM?” onward. The Financial Times has this letter in response to its earlier reporting.