ICL Plc hopes to stun the IT industry with a big news story at a conference in London on Tuesday. This is one of the most important announcements ICL will make this decade, declared CEO Keith Todd. Since the UK-based systems and services company has spent much of its recent history cutting jobs, selling factories and virtually withdrawing from the PC market, it has hardly set the pace, even in the UK. The big announcement everyone is waiting for from ICL is its long-promised IPO. However, Todd has set 2000 as the year that the company, currently 90.1% owned by Fujitsu Ltd, floats on the market. Even that appears optimistic given its lack of profitability because of loss-making long-term mainframe maintenance contracts. ICL reported net profits for the year to December 31 of just 10.6m pounds on revenue that fell 15% to 2.48bn pounds. The smart money is on a large outsourcing contract. These are being announced thick and fast in the UK at the moment and this is one area where ICL has done well, securing major contracts from blue chip clients.
