With pre-tax profits up 80% at UKP1.5m, London-based systems house UCL Group Plc, has completed an eventful and profitable first year as a public company. Chairman Nick Drescher said Nexel, acquired last year, helped expand the company’s maintenance coverage to the whole of the UK, resulting in a hardware maintenance turnover of UKP5.2m or 32% of total business, while Computer Factors, also acquired last year, had pre-tax profits of more than UKP300,000 and is now handling the group’s Unix activity; extended litigation between UCL and Datamedia finally resulted in a net gain of UKP552,000 for UCL.