Aquis Exchange boss Alasdair Haynes is an outsider in the market

Alasdair Haynes still gets the occasional phone call saying, “I saw you on TV.”

Almost 40 years ago, he danced in the background of Top of the Pops when Frankie performed Goes to Hollywood Relax – one of the most controversial pop songs ever. It seems like an unconventional route to Haynes’ current job.

Today, at age 63 – and having survived Covid and cancer – he heads Aquis Exchange.

Aquis operates a junior stock market that aims to challenge the power of the 300-year-old London Stock Exchange – or more specifically the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) for smaller companies.

It may be less rock’n’roll than Top of the Pops, but Haynes tries to make stocks “sexy.”

He wants some of the millions of people willing to put their money into the crypto craze to look into stock investing, with a platform that makes it attractive for them to do so.

Haynes was in his early twenties and was already working his way up the ladder as a currency dealer at Morgan Grenfell when he appeared on Top of the Pops in 1984.

He had a relative who was a floor manager on the BBC TV show – a must for millions of pop fans.

“I got to dance on quite a few shows,” recalls Haynes. ‘But Relax was played live and then banned, so that music video has become an iconic moment for 1980s music. Unfortunately, the clip plays regularly and I still occasionally get calls that I saw you on TV.’

At that time, the city was a very different place. Drinking and smoking were ubiquitous and the Square Mile was unashamedly male-dominated.

There was also class segregation. Haynes – who took a job straight from Wellington College – had a harrowing job interview in which he had to overcome doubts about his eligibility due to being an ex-public schoolboy.

He was dying to work in Morgan Grenfell’s currency division, but most of the traders came from much more humble backgrounds. The statistic teen explained that he wanted the job because of his interest in gambling.

There was another hurdle to overcome with his interviewer. Haynes recalls, “He asked ‘Do you drink?’.” Haynes, who comes from a family linked to the Deuchars brewing empire, said: ‘Yes. I’m known for doing that.

“They took me to the Jampot, a well-known drinking place in the City, and said we’d give you an interview there.

‘My interview was drinking a bottle of white port which I’ve never had since – I haven’t been able to stand the stuff since. I managed to survive and struggle back to the office and they gave me the job.’

He added, “Today we are looking at whether you have a PhD in nuclear physics to become a trader. It’s the happiest break I’ve ever had. I’ve never looked back.’

Now he is fighting to be noticed by ministers and officials. “Normally I start conversations with, ‘I’m the guy you’ve never heard of, I run a company you’ve never heard of, but one in 20 transactions of all stocks across Europe is done based on this British success story called Aquis.

‘We do more than two billion (euro) a day. We are the seventh largest exhibition group in Europe.’

Haynes refers to the market business of Aquis – a subscription-based platform for trading large and mid-cap stocks across Europe.

It also operates a business that provides exchange technology around the world. And in London, it runs its own stock exchange for trading equities and debt securities.

English winemaker Chapel Down and brewer Adnams are among the listed companies, inherited from the license’s previous operators.

But the focus for the future is to help grow the next generation of tech “unicorns” — start-ups worth more than a billion dollars.

Haynes argues that markets, which today usually close deals two days after the trade date, need a major shake-up to make them fit for the future.

A government task force is due to report on the move from two to one day by the end of next year, but Haynes thinks immediate settlements will be the norm a decade from now.

“We won’t have the systems we have today,” he insists. “We don’t do that in the blockchain environment and crypto currency world.

“If people can invest in crypto, they can buy stocks”

Haynes expresses frustration that nearly five million people in Britain owned cryptoassets last year, but there is relatively little interest in stocks. His kids and their friends, he says, trade cryptoassets on apps. His goal is to do the same for the stock market.

He points out, “If five million people can open an account and trade cryptocurrency, then this country is willing to take risks.

Make stocks sexy. It must be an attractive investment category.’

Haynes says he is concerned that members of the “baby boom” generation, who came of age in the 1980s, have had the opportunity to build wealth, but it will be much more difficult for young people in the modern world.

“They’re going to have to invest in assets that are going to perform,” he says. “For God’s sake, don’t tell me the future is for them to buy Bitcoin.

‘The future is for them to invest well and wisely.’ Haynes says that attention should be paid to modernizing markets, not only for the trade of larger companies, but also for SMEs – small and medium-sized enterprises, the “real heart” of the economy.

He says the Aquis exchange, which had 22 IPOs last year and raised more than £320m since launching just over two years ago, is “mobilizing significant capital to scale up businesses”.

Companies, he says, should be able to float earlier in their growth trajectory and use the stock market as a way to raise capital.

He supports broader efforts in the City and Whitehall to boost UK stock markets, but expresses frustration that too much emphasis is being placed on the disappointment of the loss of Arm, the Cambridge-based chip designer who chose to go public. go in New York. Not nearly enough attention is paid to small businesses, he says.

And he has a problem with City Secretary Andrew Griffith’s ambition to revive the ‘tell Sid’ frenzy of the Thatcher years, fueled by the cut-price privatizations of the likes of British Gas and British Telecom.

“Actually, we don’t want Sid,” he says. “That was a marketplace in the 1980s where people got an asset that was undervalued and you knew you were going to make money.

‘It’s not quite the same. Sid used an abacus and probably logged tables with a slide rule.’

Haynes’ ambition has not been curtailed by recent health concerns, including a severe bout of Covid at the start of the pandemic.

“I ended up in the hospital,” he says. “I was taken in an ambulance and couldn’t breathe – so it wasn’t funny in the early stages. My wife was not allowed to go. She was kept outside.

“I had cancer, which I got through early this year. Happy to be very fit and healthy.’

During his last illness, recovering and watching TV during the day, Haynes remembers thinking, “I don’t want to do this for the rest of my life.”

“When I came back, the board said, ‘Are you thinking about retiring?’

“I said absolutely not. I’m going on here forever.

“I’ve seen what the other side is like and there are only so many Eggheads episodes you can watch. You’ll have to fire me to get rid of me.”