People: French blows the PLUS trumpet

Serial small company backer and director John French is resolutely refusing to join the chorus of those who say the PLUS-quoted share market is on its last legs. Following the recent reshuffle at the market’s operator, PLUS Markets Group, French insists that PLUS-quoted ‘has the chance to take over the gap left by AIM’, the London Stock Exchange’s junior market whose critics claim it has priced and regulated itself out of its original role as nursery for young growth companies.

To prove his point, French is grooming Armaec Energy, an Armenian wind farm developer, for a PLUS-quoted float. Put together by Indian entrepreneur Suchit Punnose, Armaec secures sites, arranges supply deals and sells on to utilities.

French argues that ‘advisers’ greed has killed the golden egg on AIM’, claiming that the sort of flotations he did three years ago for £210,000 now cost at least £600,000. A long-time member of the PLUS advisory panel, he argues that the market, which is going global, ‘needs to focus on the quality of its deals and [naming no names] its advisers, too’.

Apart from venture capital groups locked in for tax reasons, French says PLUS-quoted need have no liquidity problem, provided companies generate newsflow. One PLUS concern he chairs, condoms-to-patient hygiene group Sutherland Health, is raising £250,000 as it moves into the black. He also steers AIM-quoted Resources In Insurance (formerly The Claims People), which has beefed up its act with claims handling and verification and is slashing past losses.