The placing of ITL Information Technology Group Plc (CI No 717), is all over bar the aftermarket, and as the placing of 9.5m shares in the Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire builder of fault-tolerant minicomputers was heavily oversubscribed, there should be a handsome premium when trading in the shares begins on Wednesday – provided the Japanese don’t suddenly decide that Frankfurt looks better value than London, and America doesn’t decide to default on the budget deficit. The crucial strength of ITL is the fact that it is a survivor – founded in 1966, it spent three whole years in the mid-1970s with annual sales oscillating within UKP100,000 of UKP4m, and profits at best marginal. The dash for growth that lifted ITL – then CTL – out of the trough, came a couple of years later when Tony Davies sold his Membrain creation to Schlumberger and put much of the cash into CTL. It then started to climb towards last year’s UKP2.6m pre-tax on UKP32m.
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