Aquis | revolutionising capital markets for growing businesses

What advantages does Aquis’ proportionate regulation offer to growing businesses?

A key innovation Aquis brings to the table is a framework, tailored for early-stage and growing businesses. Unlike traditional exchanges that require the same or similar corporate governance requirements on all companies, regardless of their size, Aquis applies a flexible, tiered system.

This system is likened to a "schooling" model, where businesses progress through distinct stages:

• Access (Primary School) – For early-stage businesses, where companies are taught the basics of being a public company.
• Apex (Secondary School) – For more established companies that still benefit from guidance, having a proven growth strategy and higher standards in governance.

Following that analogy, at the University stage, these companies are able to fend for themselves as they are experienced in the public markets arena. Hopefully they grow and progress to a Main Market (Aquis or otherwise), benefitting from being a listed company at an earlier stage. Without Aquis, they otherwise might not have been able to list at all with the associated costs wand the regulatory burden particularly smaller growing businesses face in being public on more traditional markets.

When Aquis went public nearly six years ago and we had the same corporate governance structure as BP and Shell, we didn’t feel that was needed for a company that had thirty staff versus others that have many hundreds of thousands of staff. So, we wanted to bring about more proportionality and appropriateness, to allow these companies to scale up in a way that they can’t otherwise do.

Another key factor that differentiates Aquis is its approach to cost and complexity reduction. Aquis has streamlined the process of going public, removing barriers that often discourage smaller companies. For example, Aquis requires only two years of audited accounts, unlike the traditional three years. Additionally, Aquis encourages clear, concise risk disclosures, limiting companies to 15 significant risks. This contrasts sharply with the sometimes overwhelming and often unreadable risk disclosures seen on other exchanges. By cutting down on unnecessary legal and accounting fees and simplifying the listing process, Aquis has made it more affordable for earlier-stage businesses to enter the public market.

Aquis also places value on having a direct relationship with its companies alongside its corporate adviser community.  By understanding the key objectives of the issuers, Aquis is able to provide the support that companies at an earlier stage in their development really need.

Can you tell us about success stories on your markets?

Aquis has already established itself as a home for diverse and innovative businesses across numerous growing sectors. Some notable success stories include:

• Incanthera, a cosmetics and medical therapeutic company, which has seen its stock rise by 169% over the year.
• EDX Medical, a medical diagnostics firm, which has grown by 257% in the same period.
• SulNOx, an ESG-focused green fuel technology company, which is helping to change the shipping industry, whose stock price also surged by 150%.

We are creating a marketplace for innovative technologies and industries that are forward-looking. We have traditional companies like Shepherd Neame, the oldest Brewer in the country. But we also have new-economy companies like Ananda Developments, using medical cannabis to support research in various areas of chronic pain, including women’s health and endometriosis treatment, where traditional exchanges have been historically more hesitant to engage. OneHealth is another interesting medical business with a single client – the NHS - who provide surgeons for smaller surgeries and their existence helps to keep waiting lists down. Aquis can and has provided funding for growth-stage businesses that may struggle on traditional exchanges.

How is Aquis changing UK capital markets?

Aquis aims to transform public equity markets. Its primary purpose is to create competition that stimulates innovation and provides growing businesses with an avenue to access capital, within a nurturing environment that has been designed with them in mind.

We are the 7th largest European exchange group today, but in the long term, Aquis envisions itself becoming the UK’s answer to NASDAQ. The exchange’s commitment to working with businesses, supporting them through their growth journey, and offering proportionate and flexible regulations, ensures that more companies can access public markets and thrive.

When speaking to CFOs and CEOs of young entrepreneurial businesses, a common question arises: Why choose Aquis over alternative means of raising capital? The answer lies in our mission to build a symbiotic relationship with these businesses. We work with companies to ensure regulations are appropriate for their growth stage and this flexibility encourages companies to join Aquis, knowing that the exchange is designed to help them grow. By creating an advanced, accessible and competitive platform, supporting companies to scale, we are transforming the UK’s capital markets for the future.