Kite Multimedia Solutions Plc, the Hitchin, Hertfordshire-based developer of health care CD-ROM products, has extended the closing date of its offer for subcription to the end of the tax year, from March 24. It has applied for a Rule 4.2 listing of shares to be issued under the new Enterprise Investment Scheme, which gives investors tax relief at 20% if they hold the shares for five years, rollover relief if they invest in another start-up when they sell, with any losses allowable against personal taxes. It is offering 1.497m shares at 70 pence a share, and expects to raise some ú942,000. The company was incorporated last July and expects to have a year-end turnover of ú600,000 on which it anticipates a net loss in the first year of just under ú300,000. The Wellbeing CD-ROM product combines the Occupational Stress Indicator developed at the University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology with a workbook format on a CD-ROM disk. The licence was bought from the developers at the University for ú10,000. The user answers a series of questions about themselves and the software comes up with an individual stress profile. It recommends which areas the user should look at to help reduce stress experienced in the workplace. This is in the form of recordings from experts, video sequences and exercises. The company is still fine-tuning the exact price of the product, and will make an announcement at the end of the month. It is expected to be in the region of ú100. The software runs under Windows and uses the Airtec Arkiver multimedia database to present the information. Kite has six beta sites testing the software at the moment – these include Lloyds Bank, Rolls Royce and Esso. The company also has two bespoke contracts and a letter of intent from a third pharmaceutical company. It plans to garner ideas from bespoke projects to be developed into off-the-shelf products, although does not intend to build the future of the company up on that because of the high costs involved. The cash raised will be used to develop opportunities seen in other areas of computer health care, such as stress management in the Armed Forces, overseas sales efforts and a pharmaceutical slide library that the company is working on. The sponsors for the issue are London-based Blackstone Franks Corporate Finance.
