Gooch & Housego Plc is the latest high technology initial public offering. The company, which is based in Ilminster, UK manufactures laser components called Q-switches which can be used for engraving computer chips. The company, founded after the second world war by chairman Archie Gooch, now 80 years old and still chairman, manufactures scientific optics and acusto-optic devices – lasers controlled by sound waves. On Friday, the company listed 5.63 million shares on London’s Alternative Investment Market, at 1.05 pounds per share, which netted existing shareholders 3.9m pounds and the company, after expenses, 1.5m pounds, to be used for a new factory. The placing represents 33.3% of the company, which is now has a market value of over 17m pounds. The company dominates the market for Q-switches, components which boost the power of lasers by turning a continuous low power 60 Watt beam into a highly intense high frequency pulse. The beam is so powerful that it can vaporize metals, with uses in micro-machining microscopic components or for etching hard materials such as diamond or semiconductor chips. Gooch & Housego Plc is working on further high tech products such as acusto-modulators for use in printers, and acusto-deflectors, and one of its Q-switches is currently used by Intel Corp to engrave identification marks on their chips, currently for security purposes.
