At STC’s interim meeting, chairman Arthur Walsh’s only comment on the future of its information services division ICL was that he couldn’t comment on speculation, but that in general terms all parts of STC’s business are looking for closer collaboration with companies on the continent and in the rest of the world. That being said, STC Plc appears to be doing moderately well with pre tax profit up by over 14% to just under UKP114m on turnover up 15% to UKP1,276m, with approximately UKP100m of the turnover figure derived from the acquisition of Computer Consoles Inc, Datachecker and Regnecentralen during the past six months. STC’s communications systems division saw turnover rise by a little over 13% to UKP322.5m in the interim period with a large proportion of this coming from terminals and cables. In telecommunications STC confirmed that it had joined forces with US West for a Personal Communications Network licence. This follows British Telecom’s confirmation of STC’s status as a strategic supplier of Flexible Access Systems, and a two year supply contract for optical and copper cable worth up to UKP150m. Meanwhile, STC’s output of phones is on its way to an annual rate of 2m units, and it has taken its first order for a Northern Telecom Ltd DMS digital exchange from British Telecom, as well as taking further enhancement business for the TXE4. In submarine systems, the contracts between the UK and Netherlands and TAT 8 have been completed while Penbal 3, PTAT and the Bermuda/Tortola spur are due for completion later this month. ICL’s managing director Peter Bonfield seemed relieved at the performance of the information systems division which saw turnover grow by 19% to UKP773m. He was particularly pleased that ICL’s international revenue now stands at 36% and that the turnover produced by software and Professional Services had increased to 45%. Other highlights of ICL’s six months included its World Class Message System Carrier 400 being selected by the US network operator MCI, its VME operating system meeting B1 security criteria (new mainframes will make an appearance at the back end of next year), the sale of ISDN Pilot systems to the US Federal Government and to three Baby Bells, and the acquisition of Datachecker giving ICL a strong position in the Retail Business sector with point of sale systems. Bonfield was confident about ICL’s future in the UK since it expects a lot of business to come its way with both the privatisation of the electricity and water industry, and the implementation of the community charge. As a whole STC intends to pursue its policy of acquisitions and collaborations and says it will deliver an improved performance in the next six months to achieve a positive year.
