New frontier for Scotland's latest quoted IT company

SCOTLAND gained another quoted company yesterday when Frontier IP switched from the Plus market to Aim, raising £1 million through a share placing in the process.

Shares in Frontier IP - which commercialises technology developed at Dundee University and the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen - will start trading on Monday, with the company expected to have a market cap of about 3.5m.

Executive chairman Neil Crabb and director Jackie McKay bought some of parent group Sigma Capital's stake in Frontier IP, with larger rival IP Group also taking part in the share placing.

Sigma Capital also released a pre-close trading update yesterday in which it revealed that second-half like-for-like revenues had grown by 11 per cent.

The Edinburgh-based asset manager now expects to generate a "small profit" before exceptional items, which include costs relating to Frontier IP being quoted on Aim and a guarantee being offered to Bank of Scotland over one of its property funds.

Sigma Capital said it was looking at a number of property initiatives with Sir Tom Hunter's West Coast Capital partnership, which is the firm's biggest shareholder. Hunter is understood to be working with Sigma to launch a 50m quoted property fund, which would buy distressed assets from the banks.