In the last few weeks a new holding company has been formed in the computing area. Called Zelix Corporation Ltd, the company is based in Wolverhampton, West Midlands and will invest in autonomously operating companies until it reaches net profits in the UKP1m region at which point it plans to go public. The time scale for the flotation plan is three to five years. The managing director of Zelix is Chris Davis, who has 15 years experience in the computer industry, managing small software companies such as Target, Lychgate and Newgate. The financial backing for Zelix has come from the directors themselves who are pleased to announce the first business to join their holding company, namely the ICL trader Carnell Computer Technology Ltd of Basingstoke, Hampshire. Carnell currently has a turnover of UKP8m and will use investment from Zelix to enhance its VME, fourth generation language and Unix product base. Zelix Corp, which, including Carnell personnel, already has 135 employees, will be the top company within the group handling all its services, while its acquisitions will operate as separate subsidiaries with a strong employee shareholding. Carnell itself has a 25% employee shareholding. Zelix intends to have several divisions each housing autonomous companies within a market sector. The sectors targeted for the near future are ICL Traders, IBM Agents and Unix developers where news of further acquisitions will soon be out. Other areas of interest are management consultants, training and recruitment.
