Terse profit warnings that UK companies periodically issue to the Stock Exchange are pretty unsatisfactory, because terse is often the word for them and the company is not prepared to elaborate, so that we all have to guess what is really going on: such was the case with STC Plc yesterday, which warned that first half profits were unlikely to meet expectations and that 1990 profits were likely to be concentrated in the second half the analysis has it that ICL has heavy costs associated with the Essex – or SX – mainframe launch, that its UK business is likely to be suffering from the problems that have hit DEC in Britain (CI No 1,447), and that STC itself is being hit by postponement of orders from British Telecommunications Plc – but is ICL simply doing less superbly well than it was, or has it slammed into the buffers? STC ain’t saying; the shares, which were already drifting down ahead of the news, shed 16 pence at 242 pence in the wake of the bad news.
