ICV claims terminal triumph
ICV, a small, privately owned information company, said at the weekend that it had gained 90 per cent of the Scottish market for terminals showing stock market information, writes Diane Coyle. Customers include Bank of Scotland, Ivory & Sime and Scottish Life. It also claimed to have won a large portion of the business in London.
The Stock Exchange recently wrote to users of Topic, its share information service, saying it would turn it off at the end of the year.
The race to replace Topic has produced as front-runners ICV and the media giant Reuters. Altogether there are 7,000-10,000 terminals up for grabs, of which fewer than half are thought to have been replaced so far.
In April 1993 the exchange signed agreements with ICV and Telekurs, a Swiss company, endorsing their development of replacement services for Topic.
Initially the Exchange introduced bigger customers to Telekurs and smallers ones to ICV, but the division broke down. Other firms, including Reuters, have since entered the market.
ICV, owned by its two founders and 3i, said it had installed 2,300 terminals. Its customers include firms such as Baring Brothers and Daiwa, and investment managers Postel and Norwich Union.
This is a surprise success for a company that had turnover of pounds 6m in 1993. It said sales this year could be pounds 15m- pounds 20m. Telekurs, which had turnover of pounds 190m last year, is thought to have installed about 650 workstations.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies