Private’s CEO Berth Milton Jr. said in August that he would consider moving shares of his company from the U.S.-based technology exchange to AIM because he was unhappy with treatment the company received at the hands of Nasdaq regulators.
One Nasdaq practice that Milton sharply criticized was so-called “naked shorting,” which he believes unfairly drives down Private’s stock price.
The practice, which is legal, drives down the price of a company because traders overwhelm the market with orders to sell low on stock they don’t really own.
“[I] am extremely unhappy with the treatment small cap companies get from the U.S. market and U.S. regulatory bodies,” Milton said, added that moving “seems like a good idea and is also a way of saving money.”
Private, which has an estimated market value of $188 million, is expected to make the move AIM later this year.
The departure comes amid a growing exodus from U.S. exchanges after the introduction of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which was passed in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom scandals to promote greater investor confidence and corporate accountability.
While critics of AIM have worried about the quality of some of the companies traded on the exchange, officials at the London Stock Exchange have responded by instituting new rules making AIM-traded companies more accountable.
