Speaking of ICGE, is this the next?? (page down a bit)
cbs.marketwatch.com
Several neglected stocks: Futuremedia, London Pacific
London mania: surprise -- tech stocks
By Thom Calandra, CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 10:59 AM ET Dec 20, 1999 More StockWatch
Commentary New!
LONDON (CBS.MW) -- It's not just shoppers at Harrods department store who are making this a rip-roaring holiday season in London.
That was my take this weekend on "CBS MarketWatch Weekend," the television show. See the TV segment.
Individual investors are turning to stocks in record numbers.
Small trades are soaring on the London Stock Exchange. It all reflects solid British confidence in a thriving economy. Private investors are also going bonkers over -- you guessed it -- technology stocks.
London stock brokers are swamped by calls from frantic investors. They want the latest, coolest Internet stock. One British newspaper called it an Investor Stampede. It's quite a shock for the British, who usually reserve the month of December for Christmas shopping and holiday parties.
The governor of the Bank of England sparked a trading rush when he said technology shares are "underpinning" equity values. Around the world.
Eddie George said the strength of technology stocks explains why stock markets in London and the United States are doing so well. Technology indexes in both countries are selling near their highest levels ever.
Oh, and it's official. London has its first day-trading outpost, a firm called InvestIn Securities.
The market for initial public offerings is juicy too. Anything with a dot-com at the end of its name, like British Internet Web host Freecom.net, is up. Hundreds of percent. And some small Internet companies in London, like Geo Interactive Media, are up several thousand percent for the year.
(Ariel Nissim, business development director of Israeli and London-based Geo Interactive Media, told me the company is a leader in tailoring streaming video and audio solutions. The company just set up a business in the United States, MotionEmail, that streams rich media to the outsourced e-mail marketing industry.)
Some overlooked Internet companies
Guess what? Some of these London Internet stocks trade in the United States. Scoot.com Plc (SCOP: news, msgs) provides information to British businesspeople. Scoot stock has quadrupled since its IPO on Nasdaq.
Other companies, like tiny Futuremedia Plc (FMDAY: news, msgs), have been virtually ignored. Futuremedia is in a hot field, integrated learning Web sites with names like www.easycando.com. Yet the stock on Nasdaq sells for pennies.
One up and comer, London Pacific Group (LDP: news, msgs), is headquartered in the Jersey Channel Islands for tax reasons. London Pacific stock (see chart) trades in London and as an American Depositary Receipt in New York. But the company handles most of its operations from California. London Pacific is an insurer with venture capital investments in American Internet companies like Net Perceptions (NETP: news, msgs), Ramp Networks (RAMP: news, msgs) and Doubleclick purchase Net Gravity (NETG: news, msgs).
(A Bear Stearns analyst says London Pacific could become the next Internet Capital Group (ICGE: news, msgs), a company that is a huge venture capital success story in the United States. A top executive, Ian Whitehead in the company's Sacramento, Calif., office, was an advisor to former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.
"The firm may be on the verge of breaking out valuation-wise," special situation analysts Craig Peckham and Peter Barry at Bear Stearns said in a report. Three of London Pacific's investments this year were sold to Cisco Systems (CSCO: news, msgs) for stock. The analysts estimate the company's venture capital stakes in public companies is worth about $15 a share.
The company doesn't comment on upcoming IPOs of its stakes, but message boards in London, including one at www.hemscott.co.uk, say one of London Pacific's significant holdings is U.S. software company Extensity, which is expected to fetch a stock market valuation of as much as $1 billion on Nasdaq. (In London, I'm Thom Calandra. CBS MarketWatch.)
Before the U.S. stock market opened Monday, Futuresource Media shares were at 3/4. London Pacific shares were at 28. |
