Following Tadpole Technology Plc’s flotation on the UK Stock Exchange last December (CI No 2,064) and due to interest shown in its shares in the US, the Cambridge-based company intends to appoint US financial advisors with a view to obtaining a New York listing for its shares in American Depositary Receipt form. Tadpole’s US subsidiary generates approximately 85% of its turnover, while the rest comes from Europe, including the UK. The UK handles direct sales for most of Europe, excluding France, where Tadpole has another smaller subsidiary. And the operations in France support and work with the company’s reseller community, which bring in the bulk of its European revenues. For the first six months of its financial year, Tadpole turned round from losses of UKP1.4m last time to pre-tax profits of UKP26,800 this. Turnover rose 93.5% to UKP8.9m, and the company’s order book to March 31 stood at UKP5.5m. Deputy group chief executive, J A Woan attributed its success to careful cost control, strong sales of its Sparcbook notebook computer, and a healthy OEM business. In fact, Sparcbook sales were so good, Woan said, that OEM revenues have fallen as a percentage of group total to 37% in 1993 from 48% in 1992. Tadpole sells board-level products OEM to the likes of General Electric Co Inc and Polaroid Corp. In an effort to expand this business further, it has just signed a joint marketing agreement with the Sparc Technology Business Unit of Sun Microsystems Computer Corp, which sells Sparc technology and expertise to third parties, but will focus on higher volume, standard board designs, while marketing Tadpole’s skills in complex custom board designs. Still, the vast majority of Tadpole’s profits come from its systems business, including Sparcbook product, portable computers, and fees from licensing deals. And chief executive George Grey is confident that current growth levels can be maintained, All the group’s development projects are on track, including the notebook workstation being undertaken for IBM Corp. The current indications for those projects due to bring revenues in the next financial year enable us to look forward to 1994 with considerable optimism.
