Under the Business Expansion Scheme, Swansea-based home computer manufacturer Miles Gordon Technology Plc is looking to raise UKP500,000 by offering up to 400,000 shares at UKP1.25 a share. The minimum subscriber investment is UKP1,000 or 800 shares, and the issue has been fully underwritten by Johnson Fry Corporate Finance Ltd. The company was originally set up in 1986 as a partnership between Bruce Gordon and Alan Miles. Gordon is Miles Gordon’s technical director, and was a founding member of Microtext (UK) Ltd, a word processing company which existed for 10 years (1974-1984) and then went into voluntary liquidation. Before setting up Miles Gordon, he established a computer consultancy firm Gordon Micro Ltd which designed and manufactured expansion cards for use with Sinclair computers in industrial applications. Meanwhile, Miles (the other half of Miles Gordon) has been a media consultant and has worked in educational marketing. Just prior to setting up Miles Gordon he spent two years as Middle East marketing manager for Sinclair Research Ltd, establishing a distributor network with a turnover of UKP3m. The company has spent the past three years developing disk drive, printer and network control products for Spectrum software. These products have been sold via mail-order marketing, and were introduced to establish a customer base for Miles Gordon’s long term plan to design a low cost computer – the SAM Coupe – which is now ready for marketing. Built to compete with home computers such as the Commodore Amiga and the Atari ST, the Coupe emulates a Spectrum (thus giving it a ready-made software base), and it has a proprie tary Application Specific Integrated Circuit chip (manufactured by Fujitsu) enabling it to sell at UKP150. Aimed primarily at the educational sector, it will be launched in the autumn, with further SAM computers planned. Along with its computer division, Miles Gordon will retain its products division and its present core product the Plus D Interface for Spectrum which up until now has produced virtually all the company’s revenue. Because of the transport strikes and the Abbey National mailing the closing date of this issue has now been extended from its original date of July 4 to July 11. Investors in Business Expansion Scheme companies are entitled to tax relief on the investment at their marginal rate if they do not dispose of the shares for five years.
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