Woe for Promethean as shares plunge

Promethean, the second-least successful stock market float this year after Ocado, today saw its shares plunge 24.2p to a low of 124.3p. They were offered for sale at 200p in March.

Chief executive Jean-Yves Charlier said: "Fears over public sector spending cuts have had more of an impact on the share price since we floated than anything fundamental about the company.

"We are confirming strong trading today and saying we are comfortable with analysts' forecasts of 20% growth for the full year."

First-half revenues at the learning technologies company rose 35% to £122 million and headline operating profits were up 42% to £13.7 million.

The maiden interim dividend is 1.05p a share with twice that amount forecast for the final.

Charlier said while there were some worries over public sector spending on education in many countries over the short term he believe the long-term prospects remained strong.

The UK, which accounts for less than 10% of revenues, now has whiteboards in 70% of its 750,000 classrooms. In North America around 40% of four million classrooms have whiteboards but in continental Europe they are in only 8% of four million classrooms.

He added: "Education is one of the areas which will be most protected in public spending around the world."

Its flotation cost £8.5 million to raise £105.5 million, with the bulk of the fees going to investment banks Gleacher Sherlock, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Cazenove.