Chris Boxall, co-founder of AIM specialist Fundamental Asset Management, writes in this week’s Investors Chronicle.

The article ‘The key to Aim success’ suggests how the AIM Admission Document should be essential reading for any investor in AIM companies, yet large parts of this vital document are often ignored.

The disastrous performance of Conviviality (CVR) and Accrol Group Holdings (ACRL), suggest many investors – both large and small – missed the warning signs in the admission documents of both these companies that may have prevented a substantial loss of capital.

Subscribers to Investors Chronicle can read the article by visiting the link here

Be wary of Buy and Build!
We are increasingly wary of the so-called ‘Buy and Build’ strategies adopted by some companies on AIM, led by corporate managers with little real equity participation; Conviviality being one such example of this. Many of these businesses seem to address low growth markets and are struggling to make real progress, flattering their reported returns through large ongoing exceptional items and restructuring costs, with signs of trouble often reflected in poor cash flow. To quote Warren Buffett, ‘Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.’ On this measure Conviviality could be likened to a nudist colony!