INVU marks new year with a listing

DOCUMENT management software provider INVU is to be the first London stock market flotation of 2004.

Founded and headed by David Morgan, the company begins trading on the Alternative Investment Market tomorrow with a market capitalisation of £8m.

It is raising £2.5m net of expenses through a placing of its shares with City institutions at 8 1/2p each.

With the new institutional shareholders owning less than 40% of the company, the listing will turn Morgan into a paper multimillionaire only seven years after he founded Northampton-based INVU.

The company has 26 employees and more than 700 business customers with 12,000 licensed users through a network of 80 resellers - mostly small or medium-sized enterprises in Britain, the Netherlands and Ireland.

Morgan said the proceeds from the placing, brokered by Arbuthnot Securities, will be used to 'enable us to increase our market penetration, particularly of the SME market, expand our reseller channel and build the INVU brand'.

The software firm's biggest customers include fund manager Man and Universal Music.