Viewcall Europe Plc of London is looking to raise ú700,000 via an offer of shares for subscription and will apply to trade its stock under the Rule 4.2; it releases its prospectus today. If it raises the ú700,000 it wants, it will be capitalised at ú4.8m. Viewcall was established at the back end of last year and is currently the sole licensee of the Viewcall interactive on-line system, which uses fractal compression at the host end. It is an end-to-end system that enables VHS quality still pictures to be passed across the telephone network at speeds that make it fast enough for on-line catalogue shopping, for example. The set-top box decoder in the home then decompresses those images for the customer. The company has yet to confirm details of the manufacturer of the systems and is holding back information on the details of the hardware and software until this is finalised over the next 10 days. The fractal technology has been pioneered by Walzer Corp of Jersey over the past two years. Viewcall will use the money raised to fund trials of the system. The decision on the location of the trial will be made in the next six to eight weeks from a shortlist of three locations and should be live in the third or early fourth quarter. Walzer currently holds the largest stake in Viewcall and shareholders number around 50; broker is London-based Astaire & Partners Ltd.
