LIVINGSTON-based Magnum Power hopes to further distance itself from the image of a ''struggling hi-tech company'' after signing a second major contract within the past month.
The deal is a licensing agreement with ABB Power Supplies of Germany, part of Zurich-based ABB Asea Brown Boveri.
The subsidiary has acquired the right to put Magnum's technology into its own products, as demand dictates, for the next three years.
Magnum has developed a built-in uninterruptible power supply which saves open computer files in the event of an unexpected power loss. ABB expects its original equipment manufacturing (OEM) clients in the computer and telecommunications sectors will be interested in the technology.
''At this point, we don't know what the contract will be worth,'' Magnum's Sandy Morrison said. ''(ABB) believes there is a market for it in the areas they sell to at this time, but as yet that market is undefined.''
The deal, which comes just weeks after Magnum signed its second-largest contract ever with Siemens Nixdorf, will involve undisclosed up-front engineering payments to Magnum.
ABB will be able to ship products incorporating the Scottish company's technology within 24 weeks, thus generating a new license income stream for Magnum in the current financial year to May 31, 1999.
Morrison, who was yesterday confirmed as chief executive, said he was pleased with the results of the company's share placing and rights issue. The fund-raising exercise, which was announced in April, has raised the maximum of #3.5m net in working capital for Magnum.
Company stockbrokers Henry Cooke Lumsden, which underwrote the placing and rights issue to a minimum of #2.1m, announced yesterday that eligible shareholders had taken up 81.3% of the 21.2 million new shares on offer. Subscribers were found for the remaining four million shares.
The stockbrokers also confirmed that Morrison, who joined the company in November as managing director, had taken over from Alex Wilson as chief executive.
Wilson continues with the company as a non-executive director.
Shares in Magnum closed 0.5p higher yesterday at 16.25p.
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