Almost a fifth of companies listed on London’s junior Alternative Investment Market ditched plans to make acquisitions last year, according to new research, as small groups opt to put corporate activity on hold and hoard cash in a bid to weather the downturn.

In a survey of 123 senior executives at Aim-listed companies, 19% said they had shelved acquisition plans in the last 12 months, while over a third said they had no acquisition plans at all going forward, up from 18% in 2008 and 14% in 2007.