Flotation for technology pioneers

The turbines are used for military application

A Welsh company that specialises in developing minute gas turbines is to float on the London Stock Exchange.

Japanese-owned STS employs about 330 staff in Newport, south Wales, and specialises in developing the micro gas turbines, each of which has the power to supply up to 100 watts of electrical power.

STS is involved in some radical new products like a tiny gas turbine generator no bigger than a shirt button.

But despite its size, it is capable of powering a light bulb or a lap-top computer.

New jobs

Micro machines such as this are expected to have huge impact over the next few years and STS is already exporting on a global basis.

It also builds micro-electronic circuits a fraction of the thickness of a human hair and mechanical devices almost too small to be seen by the naked eye.

The company is presently a wholly-owned subsidiary of a big Japanese corporation Sumitomo Prediction Products.

It is to offer 40% of the company to investors during the floatation next month - which will create 85 new jobs - on the Alternative Investment Market.

While the staff will not cash in directly from the windfall, they will be able to take up share options in the company.

The flotation should see the company achieving a market capitalisation of between £50m and £100m.