Printer and publisher The Stationery Office Group is expected to float on the stock market, it emerged yesterday. The company, which was created two years ago from the privatisation of Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO), is likely to take the ''preferred route'' of a flotation as early as late 1999.
The move would allow venture capital backer National Publishing Group to realise its investment after it bought HMSO for #54m from the Government in 1996. But The Stationery Office, which publishes 10,000 titles annually including the Highway Code, Whitaker's Almanack and the Budget, has not yet set a timetable for a float.
The business announced yesterday it was in the black for the first time since privatisation. This came after restructuring cut the workforce by 750 to 1500. It had a turnover of #264.1m and a pre-tax profit of #8.5m, compared with two years of ''significant losses''.
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