Shares in i-mate, the beleaguered mobile phone and hand-held computer developer that is majority-owned by Glaswegian Jim Morrison, surged 13.5% yesterday after the company poured cold water on rumours that it was on the verge of collapse or a sale.
Shares in i-mate, the beleaguered mobile phone and hand-held computer developer that is majority-owned by Glaswegian Jim Morrison, surged 13.5% yesterday after the company poured cold water on rumours that it was on the verge of collapse or a sale.
The announcement provided shareholders in the Alternative Investment Market-listed, Dubai-based company with a moment of welcome respite.
In a regulatory statement to the stock exchange yesterday, i-mate, which makes Microsoft Windows-compatible mobile devices, said it had "adequate" cash resources, "quashing rumours that it is up for sale or closing down".
It also said that it expected its full-year results to the end of March 2008 to be broadly in line with market expectations, and to have estimated sales of $63m (£31.8m).
In January, shares in i-mate crashed 38% after the company revealed that a supply glitch would "significantly disrupt its strategy for the US market" and it would be forced to conduct its second strategic review in a year.
However, the following month, embattled maverick Morrison insisted i-mate was not for sale and that he would turn the company around.
I-mate shares yesterday climbed back to close at 21.75p, a gain of 2.5p.
Morrison, whose 76% stake in the company was worth £160m in January 2007 before a year of disastrous set-backs that sent the share price plummeting, saw the value of his stake inch up to around £15m yesterday.
Meanwhile, i-mate also said it expects "considerable" savings of about $5m in direct operational costs following the strategic review it announced in January, which is "near completion".
The firm added that its sales were "accelerating" as expected.
Morrison, a former BT executive who founded the firm in Glasgow in 2001, reduced his stake from 100% through a 2005 placing on AIM.
The following year, Morrison said he decided to relocate to Dubai's International City because it was an emerging wireless market that did not yet have many established players.
