Reporting that orders are well ahead of last year at both ICL and at Communications Systems, STC Plc told shareholders at the annual meeting this week that it is looking at possible collaborative agreements overseas for many of its businesses. New chairman Arthur Walsh said that while possible collaborations for ICL with both Nixdorf Computer AG and Ing C Olivetti & Co SpA had been discussed, he wasn’t aware of any talks with Siemens AG although my managers don’t tell me everything. The speculation that Northern Telecom Ltd might want to sell its 27.5% stake in STC was firmly rebutted, and always sounded very wide of the mark. Northern Telecom still wants a strong presence in the European telecommunications market, and unless it can see a better opportunity of achieving it than via its relationship with STC, it is likely to hang on to its shareholding in the company especially as the future of GEC Plessey Telecommunications is by no means settled, and the proposed alliance between it and Siemens is simply the most likely foreseeable outcome at present. But it would be strange if not only Northern Telecom but also AT&T Co, NEC Corp and to a lesser extent L M Ericsson were not casting envious eyes at Siemens’ promised 40%.
