Parc to float on London and Dublin stock markets

The Irish contract staffing company Parc is to float on the Dublin and London stock exchanges. Once a part of Aer Lingus, bought out by its management in 1995, the company specialises in staffing the aviation, technical engineering and information technology sectors.

Although the prospectus will not be published until late August, analysts estimate the company is worth between £35 million and £45 million, not counting capital to be raised by the company in conjunction with the flotation. For the 12 months to the end of March this year, Parc had a turnover of £64.7 million and pre-tax profits, not counting exceptional items, of £2.82 million.

Currently, 51 per cent of the company is owned by its management and staff, with Mercury Asset Management (MAM) holding the remaining 49 per cent. Parc's chief executive, Mr Peter Keenan, owns 10 per cent, while the former chief executive, Mr David Hanly, holds around 7.5 per cent.

MAM and Parc management bought the company from Aer Lingus for an undisclosed sum, said to be "in excess of £11.5 million".

After the flotation, the company expects around half of the stock to be held by new investors - MAM said it intends to hold "a significant part" of its stake.

The company has been growing in recent years, acquiring British-based Shoreline Recruitment in 1992 and Euro Workforce in 1995. In April, Parc bought the Cousins group, a contract staffing company specialising in the technology sector and also based in Britain.

Currently, aviation represents 51 per cent of the company's business. Since 1994, Parc has doubled the number of pilots working on its contracts to around 400 and is now the largest company in the world in this area. Mr Keenan said Parc has some 30 aviation sector clients in 19 countries, including JAL, Airbus, British Aerospace, Britannia, GO (British Airways), SAS Flight Academy and TEA Switzerland.

Technical engineering and management staffing accounts for 39 per cent of business, Mr Keenan said, and clients include IBM, Hewlett Packard, GEC Marconi, Smithkline Beecham and Orange.

Staffing the information technology sector represents the remaining 10 per cent of revenue, and clients include ICL, BBC, Sema and Abbey National.

"Parc has a strong record of organic growth, and a well-balanced business with a blue-chip client base," said Mr Keenan. "We are now well-positioned to grow strongly in our niche markets, to make more of the cross-selling opportunities across the group, and to expand into new specialist markets."

He said that the flotation was not designed to build up a large acquisitions "war-chest", but would give Parc more leverage if it did wish to purchase other companies.

As well as making paper millionaires of several executives, the flotation will benefit everyone at the firm. Two years ago, Parc gave all of its permanent staff shares or share options in the company in a bid to create a team atmosphere. Mr Keenan declined to reveal precisely how much employees could expect to gain, but said the amounts even for junior members of staff would be "financially significant. . . thousands of shares".