Many unusual companies make their homes on Aim, but it is a fairly safe bet that only one has a board comprising solely a non-executive chairman.

Artilium, a Belgian telecoms services provider, arrived on the junior market about three years ago via Future Internet, a cash shell in which Robert Bonnier, the financier best known as founder of Scoot.com, had an interest. By November 2007 its shares were trading at 300p, but then Panmure Gordon, its broker at the time, issued research that said the price was being driven to excessive levels by retail investor speculation, and put a value on the shares of 91p each.