£400m tech poised to brave City

ONE of the biggest flotations this year will be launched in the autumn by a Scottish technology company.

Edinburgh-based Wolfson Microelectronics, an audio and video chip maker, will be valued at up to £400m on the London stock market,

It will also be the biggest transaction for a technology company since the dotcom bubble burst in March 2000.

Wolfson boss David Milne, recently named as Scotland's technology entrepreneur of the year, decided to take the plunge after watching Yell, the telephone directories business, successfully float last month. It is believed that Wolfson has hired investment banks Cazenove and Citigroup to advise on the float.

Wolfson, which posted profits of £2.4m on sales of £22.4m last year, has a deal with Microsoft to supply chips for its Xbox games console. This accounts for 15% of its business.

The company, spun out of Edinburgh University in 1985, makes chips that transform analogue signals into digital signals and back again. They are used in DVD players, games consoles, palmtop computers and entertainment systems. A spokesman for Wolfson declined to comment.