View from City Road: Finding investors has its price

Happy days are here again, if this week's three stock market debuts are anything to go by. Exco, the moneybroker, closed at 199p, 24p above the 175p issue price having touched 207p at one point. Yates Brothers Wine Lodges soared to 165p, after a high of 169p, compared with the 140p flotation price, while Monday's debut, 3i, is now 8.3 per cent above the issue price.

Venture capitalists and entrepreneurs should not get too excited. The week's events confirm that good companies can still find investors, at a price. All three were floated cheaply - a p/e of just 8 for Exco, a 13.5 per cent discount to net assets for 3i. The market has also moved with them, rather than against them - the FT- SE 100 has gained more than 4 per cent in the last week alone.

Investors will not buy just anything. While it is still possible to drum up interest in tiny companies - say up to pounds 50m - provided the business is strong and the price not too greedy, the funds available for those between pounds 50m and pounds 150m appear to have dried up - regardless of who it is. Anything above that has to take its chances with other calls on investors' money.