Bourse PLUS sees more small company IPOs

LONDON (Reuters) - The PLUS market (PMK.L), a bourse rival to the London Stock Exchange's (LSE.L) junior board, expects more small-sized firms to float on its platform this year amid a bear market.

Despite a sharp decline in initial public offerings in the first quarter, PLUS-quoted companies raised some 20 million pounds between January and March, compared with Alternative Investment Market's (AIM) $300 million (151 million pounds) and $100 million on the LSE's main market.

"At the moment, the pipeline has been stronger than it's ever been... it's much more likely IPO is going to be on PLUS," said Chief Executive Officer Simon Brickles, who headed AIM before joining the firm in 2004.

The amount of new issuance on AIM doubled to around 800 after the dotcom bubble of 2000.

"I think only one trading platform make sense for companies raising less than 5 million pounds, and that is PLUS," he said, adding that AIM has moved to serve slightly bigger companies.

Small companies are more likely to seek PLUS listing because of lower costs -- typically some 250,000 pounds for a company raising 5 million pounds or about half that on AIM.

PLUS generated two-third of its revenues from listing fees, with the rest from selling market data.

The company, which posted a loss of 2.98 million pounds in 2007, would become cash generative in 2009 if the bourse is allowed to trade all AIM-listed securities by the end of this year.

(Reporting by Daisy Ku; Editing by David Cowell)