Netvest.com Plc, a London-based shell investment company yesterday revealed the scope of its first tranche of internet-related investments, which total around 240,000 pounds ($400,000). Beneficiaries include ShopGenie.com, a price comparison web site, which gets 150,000 pounds ($247,000), free-phone reseller Powernet Telecom Ltd with 50,000 pounds ($82,000), French Easdaq-listed smart card developer ActivCard SA with $50,000, and Chandra Plc, which gets 5,000 pounds ($8,200) to help it to its initial public offering.
The cash injections follow an earlier short-term investment of 100,000 pounds ($160,000) in VirtualInternet Plc, London’s Alternative Investment Market-listed internet services supplier, from which Netvest says it has realized a significant return. How this was achieved is unknown – VI’s share price has been falling for the last two months.
Netvest was formed and floated on the Alternative Investment Market in August with the express intent of raising enough capital with the flotation to invest in small up-and-coming European internet ventures. Using the .com tag as a cheap gimmick to attract investors (it doesn’t own the URL), the company managed to hike its share price up 100% to 52 pence by the end of the first day’s trading, raising 730,000 pounds ($1.2m) in the process. Its shares are now worth around 44 pence.
