A Cork businessman, Mr Samir Naji, who set up a computer services business 11 years ago with help of a £40,000 loan, is now worth more than £113 million after his Horizon Computer Group was floated on the Dublin and London stock markets.
Mr Naji (37), the son of an Egyptian father and Cork mother, set up Horizon in Cork in 1988. Horizon shares debuted on the stock markets yesterday and rose by a remarkable 156 per cent, from £1.29 to £3.31, after soaring as high as £3.59 in earlier trading.
Mr Naji sold just over six million shares to institutional investors and Horizon employees for £6.2 million, but he said there was no question of the share offer being underpriced.
Although he sold the shares at just £1.29 each, Mr Naji has the consolation of knowing that his remaining 34 million shares - more than 58 per cent of the company - are worth £113 million at the market's closing price.
Horizon's 230-plus staff are among the main beneficiaries of the flotation. The workers bought 306,000 shares for £395,000 but these are now worth more than £1 million after just one day's trading. Even before the flotation, Horizon employees owned 3 per cent of the company through a share option scheme.
The huge rise in the Horizon share price follows similar gains in other Irish high-technology companies such as Trintech and Baltimore Technologies, with unprecedented demand from international investors for companies exposed to the high-growth Internet and e-commerce sectors.
The Horizon flotation, which values the company at a little less than £200 million, and the windfall gains for Mr Naji and his employees, come just six weeks after the company pulled out of a takeover by Eircom which would have valued it at just £75 million.