Has Calluna Group Plc, whose unloved shares have been gathering dust in the offices of many disgruntled investors, at last found some admirers? The Glenrothes, Scotland-based manufacturer of tiny disk drives, has a five year record of steadily escalating losses and the shares, which hit a peak of over 80 pence in 1986, have been as low as 7.5 pence in the past year. Now analysts are starting to look fondly on the company’s prospects. One reason is that its archival, the Boulder, Colorado-based Integral Peripherals Inc filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. The other factor cheering investors are reports of a good reception for Hardwall, its new product designed to protect information stored on a disk by intelligent use of disk partitioning. It is targeted at applications involving networks, and the internet, and claims to offer protection against virus attack, hacking, data theft, illegal access and data corruption. The shares are currently attracting support around the 34 pence level but whether speculators’ optimism is justified will not be known until the company reveals its results for the year to March 31 next month.
