The chaps in Forbairt responsible for investing start-up and development capital in some of the State's high-tech companies can be forgiven for toasting their recent good fortune with the imminent flotation of Icon on Nasdaq and the £4 million equity injection into Datalex by ICC and Dermot Desmond's IIU.

The Icon prospectus for Nasdaq does not state how much Forbairt originally put into Icon, but given that the investment took place back in 1991 when Icon was a lot smaller than it is now, it seems safe to assume that the investment was comparatively modest.

Now, if Icon floats on Nasdaq at its indicated mid-value of $15, Forbairt's stake in Icon will be worth £10 million and probably a lot more if Icon trades up to the sort of multiples of its peer group on the US market. That stake includes a chunk of nearly 40,000 that Icon allotted to Forbairt in return for ending a shareholders' agreement which prevented any share issue without Forbairt's written permission.

Forbairt can also feel pretty happy with its early £80,000 investment in Datalex, which has now been converted into a 5 per cent equity stake in the company, which manufactures PC-based solutions for the airline industry.

That equity injection values Datalex at £20 million and values the Forbairt stake at £1 million. Not bad for an £80,000 investment. a return that private-sector venture capitalists would die for. And if Datalex floats on Nasdaq at some point in the future, that 5 per cent stake will probably be worth a lot more.