Country Bumpkin is reasonably well-established compared to other companies that have floated on AIM with fairly short and even non-existent trading records.
One of the devices used by newly-floating companies and their Nominated Advisors to encourage investor confidence is the lock-in. This is a restriction placed on directors and major shareholders of a company preventing them from selling their shares within a certain period after the float, typically 12 months.
The idea of the lock-in is to avoid a situation in which "those in the know" cash in their shares as soon as a company is floated, leaving a very sour taste in the mouths of ordinary investors who have just bought the shares.
Having a covenant in place before the float gives investors confidence that the Captains are committed to the survival of their ship and aren't going to abandon it as soon as it puts out to sea.
In Country Bumpkin's case, a lock-in was not considered necessary - apart from anything else this was a placing, not a public offer for sale, so there was no question of needing to shore up investor confidence.
The Rooney family and other pre-float investors could have sold shares on the first day of trading. If they had, the market would certainly have taken a dim view of it, but contractually they would have been within their rights.
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