Microchip designer FD prepares float
Hi tech companies this autumn are again looking for stock exchange listings, only six months after the market's overconfident sector took a crash.
Microchip designer ARC International is set today to float on the LSE advised by Goldman Sachs at a value of £495.5m with shares priced between 170p and 210p.
FD and chartered accountant Simon Poulton is due to see £94m raised for the silicon chip designers war-chest in one of the UK’s largest technology listings this year.
ARC was set-up in 1996, and designs but does not manufacture chips for the general telecommunications, voice and data networking and consumer electronics market. The Hertfordshire-based systems developer now has 50 licences.
Microchip rival ARM Holdings, fibre optics manufacturer Bookham and Ireland’s Parthus have all successfully floated on the LSE since the hi-tech market jittered in March.
Poulton joined ARC in January, after serving as group finance director at the label manufacturer Ferguson International for four years.
After qualifying with Price Waterhouse, Poulton held senior financial positions at Davies & newman, Thorn EMI, Thomson Corporation and Whitbread, before he became group finance manager at Simon Engineering.