Yet another high-flyer comes unstuck less than a year after it went public: National Telecommunications Plc, much sought-after when it came to market last July at 120 pence a share, says that profits for the year to March 31 last will be between UKP3.1m and UKP3.3m against market expectations of UKP4.4m to UKP4.7m, and the shares tumbled 14 pence to 107p; the problems are in the private telephone exchange distribution business, where there poor accountability at mid-management levels and a deviation from group strategy resulted in lower than expected sales – but those are just the sort of incipient problems that sponsors and financial advisors are meant to spot before a company goes public; National says that management has been sorted out, and also hopes for a bit of spice from an imminent development and marketing agreement with Goldstar Co of Seoul, South Korea.
