the winners, sinners, blaggards, laggards and bounders

If you listen to AIM’s many vociferous critics, you’d be forgiven for thinking it is a den of thieves and hucksters.

Unfortunately, the junior market’s chequered history provides a lot of ammo for AIM’s decriers but there have been plenty of success stories too.

Here then, is a brief tour of AIM’s winners, sinners, rampers, happy campers, laggards, blaggards and bounders.

They AIMed, they soared, they conquered

Let’s start with some of the many success stories.

Most investors think AIM is for high-growth start-ups but the market has 16 companies valued at more than £1bn and four of them – (LON:BO), (), PLC () and () have market capitalisations higher than the lowest valued FTSE 100 stock, which is (), valued at £2.27bn.

Another AIM stock, PLC (), valued at £2.19bn, is right on Carnival’s shoulder.

Were it not for the fact that AIM stocks are precluded from featuring in the blue-chip index, they would all be knocking on the door for inclusion in the Footsie and in Boohoo’s case, would sashay in to look down its nose at its fellow, lower-valued retailers, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons.

Recent up-and-comers include (), (), () and ().

One former AIM member, Melrose Industries () has actually made it into the FTSE 100, albeit after leaving AIM. It floated on the junior market in 2003 with a market capitalisation of just £13mln; it is now worth more than £6bn.

Other AIM alumni that have made it into the big time are Domino’s Pizza Group PLC () and (), both of which are stalwarts of the FTSE 250.

Other familiar names that moved on from AIM to a main-market listing include () and () while well-known companies that moved in the opposite direction from a full-listing to AIM include Young & Co (), the pubs group, (), the healthcare outfit, and Johnson Services Group (), the laundry and workwear firm.

Too close to the sun

AIM has had its fair share of shooting stars; companies that grew like topsy only to switch from topsy to turvy, in many cases as a result of overambition.

Take ScotOil Petroleum. You might remember it better as , a North Sea oil explorer once valued at £2bn that collapsed into administration in 2009 after oil prices collapsed to US$40 a barrel and bankers refused to fund its ambitious near-£1bn exploration programme.

Or another “once worth £2bn” company, African Minerals, formerly known as Sierra Leone Diamond Corporation. It called in the administrators in March 2015 after it fell out with its main backer, China’s Shandong Iron and Steel Group.

Who can forget – try as we might – the dotcom bubble?

Most people still remember Lastminute.com, which is at least still going today. Not so Affinity Internet, which floated on AIM in April 1999.

It was caught up in dotcom mania, and after its market cap zoomed past the £1bn mark in the first half…