Greg Hands, Member of Parliament for Chelsea and Fulham, was granted the honour of opening trading on the London Stock Exchange on Friday, 19 June.
In his new role as Chief Secretary to the Treasury in the Conservative majority Government, Greg opened trading on the London Stock Exchange on the twentieth anniversary of the Alternative Investment Market (AIM).
Greg Hands says, “I was delighted to make the same commute which many of my constituents in Chelsea and Fulham make every day, and it was good to be back in the City, where I worked before being elected as a Councillor in Hammersmith and Fulham in 1998, and then as Member of Parliament for the first time in 2005.”
In his role as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Greg was proud to celebrate twenty years of AIM, the London Stock Exchange’s stock market for smaller companies, saying: “The entire history of the London Stock Exchange combines pragmatism with innovation, and I am impressed by the active and thriving market it provides for the vast number of high-growth small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
“The British people have responded with a determination and readiness to confront the hard choices that the Government has had to make as part of our long-term economic plan. Britain’s innovative and dynamic SMEs are the backbone of our economy, and that is why this Government has supported AIM by removing Stamp Duty on the purchase of shares on growth markets, and allowing AIM shares to be held in ISAs.”
Greg Hands thanks the London Stock Exchange for the invitation, and he was pleased to note that, perhaps by coincidence, the market opened stronger that day.