Datrontech Plc has had a promising start to life on the London Stock Exchange. It appears to be benefitting from the worldwide shortage of memory chips, extracting as it does from Kingston Technology Corp’s huge stockpile (CI No 2,574), for which it is the sole UK supplier. The Aldershot, Hampshire memory and components distributor turned in maiden interim pre-tax profits up 39% to ú2.9m on turnover up 38% to ú53.7m. It floated in March at 130 pence. The shares were trading up five pence on the day at 288 pence yesterday. In June the company added Pace Electronics’ modems and Diamond Computer Systems Inc’s graphics subsystems to its product portfolio. It also expanded its relationship with Intel Corp and now distributes Intel Systems products. Datrontech also won the title of Microsoft Distributor of the Year. The company moved into Belgium with the acquisition of Partronics NV in February for an undisclosed sum. Partronics distributes Kingston’s dynamics in Belgium. It brought in sales of ú1.4m in the period from acquisition to the half-way stage. Back home, Datrontech bought Peripherique Plc last week for up to ú2.38m. Peripherique, which also distributes personal computer memory products, made pre-tax profits of ú519,000 in the year to July 31. The US subsidiary, Memory Direct Inc pushed pre-tax profits up from the equivalent of ú41,000 to ú123,000, a result apparently of targeting Apple Computer Inc resellers. The interim dividend for the period between the start of trading on March 16 to June 30 will be 1.12 pence. The directors expressed themselves confident for the outcome at the year-end.
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