PrimePartners, UK's Seymour Pierce to list Asia stocks in London

Channel News Asia

SINGAPORE: Financial services group PrimePartners has formed a joint venture with

British investment bank Seymour Pierce to help Asian companies list in London.

The target is for these stocks to list on the London Stock Exchange's secondary board, the Alternative Investment Market (AIM).

AIM is open to smaller, but growing companies.

Companies from Asia have been clamouring for access to institutional investors from the

UK.

According to Seymour Pierce, a fifth of 1,650 companies listed on the AIM are from overseas, mainly Asia.

Keith Harris, Executive Chairman, Seymour Pierce, said: "To have a partner in the region that can aid and distinguish the geographic elements in the region, and secondly, be the leading force in doing the corporate finance work and the due diligence in the vetting process, to make sure only the better quality companies get listed, is essential. In that process PrimePartners and we met, and we discussed a union."

The partnership will split the costs and fees for any new listings.

It already has two companies from China that signed up to be listed within the year. Quek Peck Lim, Chairman, PrimePartners, said: "They are both substantial companies, and they are in the manufacturing businesses. I'm not allowed to really go into specific details, but they are both sizeable players in their market at the provincial level. We are planning to raise US$70 million for both of these companies and we expect to try for a listing sometime in the next six months."

And more listings are in the pipeline.

According to PrimePartners, it is negotiating with three firms to list on the AIM, one of which is based in Singapore.