Aldermaston, Berkshire-based Superscape VR Plc, formerly Dimension International, has set 198 pence per share as the price for its placing. It is offering 1.8m shares of which 1.6m are new and will raise about UKP3.2m of new money, before expenses. 92% of the placing shares are on behalf of the company, with the money raised being used to invest in building a slice of the world market as non-executive director Alan Wood explained. In particular the directors propose to establish a marketing subsidiary in the US to market to both the US and Pacific Rim countries. IBM Corp has made a significant investment in Superscape after many months of discussions although further details about any developments between the two were not forthcoming. The company is solely focussed on virtual reality software products with Superscape VRT 3.5 as its main product offering. This is a design and development tool selling for UKP3,450, for which the firm has 160 customers with more than 30 developed applications. The Tyne & Wear Development Corporation in the UK has used the firm’s software as a marketing tool in a UKP180m redevelopment scheme to show the design and features of a building before it is actually put up. Other companies that are using the product include Westland System Assessment Ltd in the military sector, which is using it for training applications and British Gas Plc for designing control rooms in remote offshore installations. SuperScape was set up in the early 1980s as Dimension International, originally as a computer games developer. It moved into developing three-dimensional games in the mid-1980s. At the July 31 1993 year end the firm had losses before tax of UKP21,500 on turnover of UKP642,000. Losses before tax for the six months to January 31, 1994 stood at UKP73,300 on turnover of UKP390,000. Superscape is forecasting what it calls healthy losses which relate particulary to the establishment of the US market and building up new sales and marketing teams. Losses before tax of not more than UKP450,000 are forecast for the current year end. The brokers are Henderson Crothswaite Corporate Finance Ltd and dealing on the London Stock Exchange will commence on April 28. The company will be hoping that the Division Group Plc-Virtuality Plc effect will spill over into the market for its shares now that there is a new three-member sector of virtual reality companies on the London Stock Exchange, but the company has the misfortune of coming in at the fag end of the new issues boom.
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