Sep 15, 2026 · 10 min · 9 segments
Market Tides and Trade Winds is a series of short discussions where private investor Mark Atkinson takes a direct look at recent news headlines shaping the world of investing. Created and Produced…
Firstly, why is the pool diminishing? There have been takeovers by other UK-listed companies, private equity and overseas buyers.
Companies are gravitating to other exchanges where it's easier to raise capital and achieve higher valuations.
What's not to like? And there have been delistings due to regulation for listed businesses being onerous and costly due to compliance, non-execs, reporting and so on.
Furthermore, UK pension funds have drastically decreased their investment in domestic equities.
These factors all contribute to companies falling off the back end of the conveyor belt.
In addition, there are fewer being loaded on at the front end with IPOs, initial public offerings, drying up for those very same reasons.
So to what extent has the pool diminished? According to Testista, as of May 2026, the main market has shrunk from around 2,100 listed companies in the early 2010s down to just 1,534.
Meanwhile, AIM peaked in 2007 with 1,694 businesses, and that's reduced to 614.
While there has been some two-way traffic between the main market's name, the net direction is undeniably down.
Firstly, why is the pool diminishing? There have been takeovers by other UK-listed companies, private equity and overseas buyers.
Companies are gravitating to other exchanges where it's easier to raise capital and achieve higher valuations.
What's not to like? And there have been delistings due to regulation for listed businesses being onerous and costly due to compliance, non-execs, reporting and so on.
Furthermore, UK pension funds have drastically decreased their investment in domestic equities.
These factors all contribute to companies falling off the back end of the conveyor belt.
In addition, there are fewer being loaded on at the front end with IPOs, initial public offerings, drying up for those very same reasons.
So to what extent has the pool diminished? According to Testista, as of May 2026, the main market has shrunk from around 2,100 listed companies in the early 2010s down to just 1,534.
Meanwhile, AIM peaked in 2007 with 1,694 businesses, and that's reduced to 614.
While there has been some two-way traffic between the main market's name, the net direction is undeniably down.
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