Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

Digital handset developer, Sepura is being tipped to complete a spectacular reversal of fortunes since being bought out of administration for £1 in 2002. The company is now believed to be worth £250m.

According to reports in the national press, Sepura will debut on the London Stock Exchange via a placing next month, with the company's main shareholders - four senior figures connected with investment bank, Goldman Sachs – selling about a quarter of their holdings.

The IPO has been a long-time in the making, with Business Weekly first reporting Sepura's intention to go public in May last year.

The company competes against global giants such as Motorola in the TETRA handsets marketplace and, for a medium-sized operation, is more than holding its own.

In the last two months alone, Sepura has announced contract wins in Korea, Sweden and Russia as well as the use of its handsets by UEFA officials in the Champions League Final in Athens.

The company predicts that the continued migration from analogue to digital communications by the various public safety and emergency services organsiations around the world will continue to drive growth.

The company has won this newspapers's East of England Business Awards in both the ‘private company’ and ‘international trade’ categories.

Sepura's previous incarnation was as Simoco Digital, which provided digital network infrastucture as well as handsets.

The networks business, which ultimately failed to consolidate an empty order book with payroll in excess of 150 is widely understood to have been at the root of Simoco Digital's demise. Administrators reported that the handsets business, meanwhile, had a full order book.

This is the factor that accounted for Michael Sherwood, Jonathan Green, Sion Kearsey and John Drinkwater - all formerly or currently of Goldman to make their one pound punt.

The four could net a total of £46m following the placing, according to the FT.

Sepura's last reported accounts reveal turnover of £45.4m, with EBITDA of £10.4m.