Filtronic: a UK success story cashing...

London’s Aim small-cap market is down 40% since mid 2021, but within that there has been a wide disparity of outcomes. Many 2021-vintage initial public offerings (IPOs) are down 80% or more. Yet one Aim-listed stock looks to have achieved escape velocity, having rocketed 28-fold since May 2021.

Interestingly, Filtronic (Aim: FTC) is not a start-up or even a recent IPO. The company’s history goes back to the 1970s, when it specialised in components for the defence industry before quickly adapting to benefit from the 1980s boom in mobile phones. The shares have been listed since the mid 1990s, but were demoted from the main market to Aim in 2015, following a difficult decade when the telecoms, media and technology bubble burst. Between 2000 and 2015 the shares fell from £7 to just 5p, a decline of more than 99%.