BRITISH entrepreneur Mr Alan Sugar is to take a back seat in the Amstrad plc company he founded after the consumer electronics firm announced a restructuring yesterday.
The reorganisation could net Amstrad chairman, Mr Sugar about £100 million sterling plus a 34 per cent share in Viglen Technology, the new holding company that will replace Amstrad on the London stock market in August.
The outspoken Mr Sugar, who founded the company in 1968 and helped to popularise the home computer in Britain, will be a non-executive director of Viglen, an Amstrad spokesman said. The Vi glen mail order personal computer business world become the main trading arm of the group.
However, Mr Sugar's other role as chairman and largest share-holder in London soccer club Tottenham Hotspur will keep him in the public eye.
For each Amstrad share, share-holders will receive one Viglen Technology share plus a pro rata share of Amstrad's stake in its Betacom unit, part of the proceeds of litigation and 163p nominal of loan notes exchangeable for cash.
An Amstrad spokesman said the package should be worth £2.45 a share plus the Viglen share. Mr Sugar has about 40 million Amstrad shares, owning a little more than a third of the company.
The market welcomed the news, Amstrad shares adding 13p to 276.5p to value the company at around £330 million.
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