After changing its plans of a year ago to join the Alternative Investment Market (CI No 2,876) in favour of a full listing on the London Stock Exchange last December (CI No 2,997), Instem Plc’s move has, at the very least been a smooth one. Shares were up 11.5 pence at 182.5 pence yesterday as it reported pre-tax profits up 6% at 1.3m pounds on revenue that was up 8% at 23m pounds. The Stone, UK-based control systems developer had acquired software house Apoloco Ltd in time for the last interim results (CI No 2,997), and chairman David Gare said the integration with its Laboratory Systems arm to become the Instem-Apoloco division has now been completed. He also forecast that business performance for the following year will, like fiscal 1996, be biased towards the second half. This, he claimed, is due to the lumpy nature of large project work, which arrives in the form of long contracts with long delivery times. Fitting this bill, are the two deals Instem’s computer systems arm won from National Power Plc last December, in addition to the one it got in February 1995. Istem is paying a final dividend of 3 pence, taking the total to 4.5 pence, up 18% on the 3.8 pence that was paid last year.
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