Israeli flies back in with £16m telecoms float

A former major with the Israeli Air Force is back to chance his arm on London’s Alternative Investment Market with a £16m flotation of his telecoms business, Tikal Networks.

Doron Dovrat founded and ran the first Israeli company to float on AIM, the electronic tags developer Dmatek. Valued at £14m when it came to market in 2000, it was bought by private equity for £53m in 2008.

Mr Dovrat plans to raise £5m for his latest venture. Tikal specialises in business telephone systems and call centres and claims to be one of the cheapest suppliers of such services. It currently has more than 150 customers in Israel and will use the cash raised to roll out in the UK’s much larger SME market.

The float will value Tikal at about £16m and Mr Dovrat will retain a significant minority stake in the business. The share sale is being handled by nominated adviser Grant Thornton.