Matica: how a small company is to take on a giant

Matica, an AIM-listed producer of credit card making machines, is preparing to do battle with American giant DataCard in its own backyard.

AIM may boast of being the growth market of the world' but for Matica, the small Italian company which joined the party last April, the experience so far has not been a happy one.

Having raised £1.9m on its flotation last April through selling new shares at £1 each it has seen its share price slide to 43.5p. At this level Matica (LON:MAT) is valued at less than £5m in spite of broker forecasts of £15m of sales this year and an £800,000 profit, rising to £16.5m and £1.4m respectively in 2009.

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Tom worked as a fund manager in the City of London and in Hong Kong for over 20 years. As a director with Schroder Investment Management International he was responsible for £2 billion of foreign clients' money, and launched what became Argentina's largest mutual fund. Now working from his home in Oxfordshire, Tom Bulford helps private investors with his premium tipping newsletter, Red Hot Biotech Alert.