Not so long ago the ideal development of a small company was to arrive on Ofex, graduate to Aim, and move to the full list once properly grown up.

In reality an awful lot of companies have run out of steam on the full list and moved to Aim to cut costs. The puzzle had been that no companies were moving further down the ladder to Plus (as Ofex is now known) - especially considering that Plus has been an RIE (a recognised investment exchange) since last July.