The London Stock Exchange today announced the establishment of a new AIM Management Board to oversee the running and future development of the market.

The Management Board will be chaired by Martin Graham, who in addition to his existing role as the Exchange’s Director of Market Services, will assume the role of Head of AIM. The Exchange will also recruit for the position of Deputy Head of AIM, who will have specific responsibilities for co-ordinating the future development of the market, including regulation, policy and business development activities.

Other key members of the Management Board will include Tracey Pierce, the Exchange’s Head of Company Services, who will retain responsibility for AIM business development activities in the UK and internationally, and David Shrimpton, the Exchange’s Head of Trading Services, who will continue to be responsible for AIM regulation and policy issues.

Martin Graham said:

“The new management structure will give AIM new strategic and operational focus, and will preserve its unique status. It will also further strengthen the operational resilience and strategic direction of AIM and ensure that the next stage of AIM's evolution builds on its great success since its launch in 1995.”

AIM is the London Stock Exchange's international market for young and growing companies. As at 4 February 2004, there are 760 AIM companies, up from 705 at the same time in 2003. Of these 62 are international companies (2003: 50 international).

In 2003, 162 new companies joined AIM, including 66 IPOs raising over £1 billion, with AIM alone accounting for 60% of all IPOs in Western Europe [with the London Stock Exchange as a whole accounting for 78% of all IPOs in Western Europe]. The number of shares traded on AIM more than doubled from 24.8 billion in 2002 to 54.7 billion in 2003 with the value of shares traded rising from £3.5 billion to £6.6 billion over the same period.

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For further information on AIM and statistics on the market, please visit: http://www.londonstockexchange.com/aim

Notes to editors:

Martin Graham – biography

Martin Graham has been Director of Market Services at the London Stock Exchange since May 2003. Reporting to Chief Executive Clara Furse, he is responsible for the market-facing functions within the Exchange’s business, as well as the development of domestic and international markets services. This includes all primary and secondary markets business and client relationships, market operations, market regulation and RNS.

Prior to joining the Exchange, he developed extensive industry experience in senior roles at WestLB Panmure, where he was Managing Director, Global Head of Equity Sales and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, where he was Global Head of Equity Sales. He graduated from the London School of Economics and started his career at Midland Montagu.

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