Psion to return Symbian surplus to shareholders |
|
|
Published
:
Sat, 09 Jul 2005 14:35
|
British technology major Psion has announced that it would be returning a cash surplus of £84m to its shareholders. The cash reserve is the amount that Psion had got as a result of shedding its stake in Symbian, the company's mobile phone arm. This cash represent a third of Psion's estimated market value.
Psion managers have said that the company resorted to this step since they could not find any worthwhile business to sink this capital in, Chief executive Alistair Crawford admitted that Psion had looked for some deals in privately held US companies, but nothing had actually come of it, "It's like when people sell a house, they think they want to sell but when an offer comes in they get cold feet," he said.
And the person who stands to reap the maximum benefit of this return is none other than founder and chairman David Potter who nets a cash of almost £10m. Mr. Potter founded 25 years ago and currently owns about 11.8 percent of the company.
Psion said that the company's growth this year has been on expected lines so far, "Profit margins are making progress towards the group's goals," the company said in a statement. The profit margin for the first half of the year was 20 percent more than those of the previous year at the same time. "After the return of capital, our remaining cash resources will give us sufficient flexibility to invest in building the business," Mr. Campbell said.
Psion continues to hold onto the Teklogix operation and has said that it is looking for smaller acquisitions to add to this arm. In the backdrop of the cash return to investors, Psion shares rose by 5 percent in early trading on the markets.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Print this Story
