Strange, isn’t it, that McDonnell Information Systems Group Plc, valued at only UKP120m in the buy-out last year, was able to come to market, assisted by Baring Brothers & Co and NatWest Wood Mackenzie & Co, on a valuation of UKP260m only a year later… At the current share price, the market is valuing the company at only UKP104m, which suggests that the buy-out price put a more realistic valuation on the company than the flotation price: the only surprise is that institutions were ready to buy the shares when Baring Capital Partners, which put up a fair bit of the money for the buy-out, wanted to sell much of its holding in a company that on the face of it was doing so fantastically well that its share price had gone up 115% in a year.
