Here's an excerpt from an article that's about a year old about British internet companies that trade on U.S. exchanges. Look what happened to SCOP, as well as LDP.
Some overlooked Internet companies: London Pacific
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's 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 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 adviser to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.)
"The firm may be on the verge of breaking out valuationwise," 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.
Before the U.S. stock market opened Monday, Futuresource Media shares were at 3/4. London Pacific shares were at 28. Shares of both rose sharply Monday afternoon in the U.S. stock market.
London Pacific rose as much as 14 points, or 50 percent, to 42 on the New York Stock Exchange, after this article was published. Futuresource shares rose 70 percent to 1 9/32. |
