News that Hargreaves Lansdown, the UK’s largest retail broker, is to allow electronic trading in shares from the Apex tier of the Aquis Stock Exchange (AQSE) - owned by Aim-traded Aquis Exchange (AQX) - marks a major milestone in the next-generation stock exchange’s journey to bring disruption to the exchange market.
Launched almost a decade ago, AQSE is now home to more than 100 companies, having added 11 new constituents so far this year. Within this, it’s AQSE growth market is divided into two segments: Apex, which caters for larger, more established businesses and currently consists of 18 companies; and the Access segment, which offers a more streamlined admission process for earlier stage growth companies, with 86 companies currently listed.
Apex companies must have a three-year track record, a minimum market capitalisation of £10m and 25% of their shares in public hands. Companies within the segment include wine producer Chapel Down (CDGP), brewers Shepherd Neame (SHEP) and Daniel Thwaites (THW), private healthcare group Rutherford Health (RUTH), renewable energy company Good Energy (GOOD), and private bank Arbuthnot Banking (ARBB).
Aquis said that it is working closely with Hargreaves Lansdown to bring Access stocks to the platform in due course, and that there was a healthy pipeline of new companies ready to join the AQSE.
Aquis Exchange, CEO Alasdair Haynes, commented: “I am very pleased that Hargreaves Lansdown is now including certain AQSE shares for electronic trading on its platform. I know that there is much client demand for this and we are looking forward to the scheme being extended to cover many more AQSE stocks as soon as possible. It is vital for the public to be able to access the shares quoted on the UK’s two stock exchanges easily, efficiently and, crucially, on an equal footing as each other.”
A full list of AQSE stocks can be found on Vox Markets by clicking this link.