The flotation of Monsoon, the women's fashion retailer, turned into a soggy affair yesterday when the company's shares fell below the issue price on their first day of dealings.

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Monsoon, the women's fashion retailer, has succeeded in its second attempt to float on the stock market. The group's advisers yesterday announced that the institutional placing had been over-subscribed at an offer price of 198p. This values the group at pounds 352m.

So it was second time lucky after all for Peter Simon, the founder of the Monsoon fashion chain. The former encyclopaedia salesman, who had to pull the group's float 18 months ago, has signed up a blue chip register of shareholders at the second attempt and got a top of the range price into the bargain. The Armani-clad retailer is now pounds 88m richer and he still has three quarters of a business worth pounds 352m.

Peter Simon, the founder of Monsoon, found himself pounds 88m better off yesterday when a quarter of his company was floated on the Stock Market. Tamsin Blanchard analyses the appeal of the fashion chain which epitomises ethnic chic.

After just one catwalk show, a 26-year-old designer from Manchester has become every fashion editor's tip for the top. Tamsin Blanchard meets Matthew Williamson

Dixons confirmed City fears of a weak electrical goods market yesterday when it issued a profits warning caused by poor Christmas sales of items such as personal computers, wide-screen televisions and hi-fi systems. Nigel Cope, City Correspondent, reports.

Well, you are a cowardly lot. Or maybe you're just nicer than me. Despite apparently having "touched a nerve" with my broadside on round robins, most of your letters did not actually come up with the goods. Clearly the worry of being crossed off Dick and Shirley's Christmas card list next year won out against the prospect of a year's supply of life- enhancing lessons for your children. So the prize must go to Liz Radcliffe, of Lancaster, for her own family newsletter, which shows an acute understanding of the genre. She starts with the more modest achievements of her husband - "a contender for the Nobel next time round" - and builds up to a crescendo with daughter Judy teaching swimming skills to underprivileged dolphins while son Jacob, after only one term at medical school, is showing "such great potential that he has been offered a chair in microbiotic surgery at Liverpool University. However, he turned it down as it would not give him enough time to train the England squad in rowing, plus study for his FRCS,FRCP, combined with lecturing in Radiology techniques in the 21st century." I particularly like her spin on the traditional closing line of a round robin - "If we have time, or if we are passing on one of our regular trips to your area. we will try to call ... I know your family news cannot live up to ours, but it serves you right for all your pompous letters in the past." Sadly Liz feels unable to accept the prize - her family's extra-curricular activities are already booked through to the millennium.

The pounds 350m flotation of Monsoon, the women's clothing retailer, could be heading for stormy weather as investors fight shy of a new issue in the unsettled retail sector. Nigel Cope, City Correspondent, asks whether it will be second time lucky for founder Peter Simon.

A former encyclopaedia and fishfinger salesman, who started his retail career selling Afghan coats in a London market, will be worth more than pounds 300m when his Monsoon fashion chain comes to the stock market early next year. As Nigel Cope, City Correspondent reports, t is the group's second attempt at a float.

There's only one way to dress for the Christmas party season: with lots of glitter and sparkle, and a good measure of sass. The good news? You needn't spend a fortune to shine

DELHI DAYS

Sir: Lord Monsoon does us a favour (letter, 17 July) by drawing our attention to the slaughter of birds for entertainment. No doubt there would be greater public outrage if this "sport" were more visible, not pursued on private estates and moors closed to the public in season.

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