Barely a year old, Internet service provider Global Internet Ltd has won itself a listing on the Alternative Investment Market by reversing itself into tiny property investment company Capital & Western Estates Plc. Capital, which has a current market value of around 2.3m British pounds, has provisionally agreed to buy Global along with another AIM-listed property company, Ballynatray Plc. Under the deal, Global was valued at 6.2m pounds, representing 36% of the newly merged company, which will turn its back on property and call itself the Internet Technology Group Plc. If Global makes its target of signing up 40,000 subscribers within 18 months of the acquisition, then its shareholders will receive a further 53% of the shares. Ballynatray was valued at about 9m pounds. Global Internet, based in South West London, is run by Richard and Jan Murray, the founders of the PC World chain of computer retail outlets. Richard Murray also founded Avesco Plc, the television services company t hat became overshadowed by its VideoLogic Plc graphics chip subsidiary, now a free-standing company. Since starting up in June of last year, Global it has signed up some 8,000 Internet subscribers. Capital & Western’s main claim to fame is that its directors include sons of Australian tycoon Kerry Packer, and the zoo-owning millionaire John Aspinall. And Ballynatray is far from a faceless property company, being run by Oliver Vaughan, one of the people behind Virtuality Plc. Trading in Capital & Western’s shares was suspended at 2.5 pence.
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