Aim profits warning

By Jenny Little
Updated: 06:54 EDT, 14 January 2007

More than half of quoted company profit warnings last year were from businesses listed on the Alternative Investment Market.

According to accountant Ernst & Young, 54% of the total 342 warnings were from Aim companies, compared with 43% in 2005.

Ernst & Young's report for the fourth quarter, published today, shows that 43% of the 88 profit warnings issued in the final three months of the year were by Aim-listed companies, though that was a fall from 61% in the third quarter.

Profit warnings in the final quarter were up 3.5% on the third quarter of 2006 -including one from High Street music giant HMV.

But this was eight per cent down from the equivalent period in 2005.

For the year as a whole, profit warnings fell 10% from the 381 in 2005.

Andrew Wollaston, corporate restructuring partner at Ernst & Young, said: 'The economic environment is pretty stable, which makes it surprising that the level of profit warnings is the same as it was in 2002, when conditions were tougher.'