Fai un piacere? Aggiungi questo in link (blu, rosso, marrone, verde, 
punksovietico o socialriformKerrysta... fai te ;-).... grassssssie...

bax.s.



>                                       Copyright 2004 The Financial Times
Limited
>                                           Financial Times (London,
England)
>
>                                                October 29, 2004 Friday
>                                                    London Edition 2
>
>  SECTION: SMALLER COMPANIES UK; Pg. 24
>
>  LENGTH: 877 words
>
>  HEADLINE: Manchester as a source of investment ideas
>
>  BYLINE: By WILLIAM HALL
>
>  BODY:
>
>
>  Alan Gilbert, the new president of Manchester University, is not 
well
known to most of the City of London's
>  corporate financiers and fund managers. He has spent most of 
his career
in Australia, and only recently arrived in
>  England to take up the challenge of making a success of 
merging two
provincial universities that have seen better
>  days.
>
>  Prof Gilbert's brief is to turn the enlarged University of 
Manchester,
formed from its merger with UMIST, into a top
>  research-based university that can compete with Oxbridge and 
the US Ivy
League. It is a pretty tall order, given
>  that the success rate of university mergers is even worse than in 
the
corporate world.
>
>  However, Prof Gilbert, chief executive of a university with a 
Pounds 500m
budget and 9,000 staff, has a surprising
>  amount of freedom to shake things up. His business-minded 
approach to
running the north of England's flagship
>  university, and its intellectual property policies, might trigger the
interest of small-cap fund managers with
>  longer-term time horizons.
>
>  One of Prof Gilbert's first goals is to capitalise on the enlarged
university's strong science base and crank up the
>  commercialisation of its research ideas. The number of 
inventions,
currently running at 150 a year, is targeted to
>  increase by at least 10 per cent.
>
>  While Cambridge University, the UK's top research university, 
has spawned
quoted companies such as Domino Printing
>  Science and Autonomy, one venture capitalist has described the 
gap
between Cambridge and California's Silicon Valley
>  as "like comparing a seagull with a Boeing 747". On this basis 
Manchester
would be ranked as a scrappy sparrow.
>
>  Although more than 60 companies have been spun off by the 
two Manchester
universities, there have been precious few
>  stock market successes. NeuTec Pharma, a biotechnology 
company floated on
Aim in 2002, is an exception. But most
>  have followed Tepnel Life Sciences and failed to live up to 
expectations.
>
>  Manchester has some interesting companies coming through. 
Renovo, which
has capitalised on research into wound
>  management, and Transitive, a software company spun out of the
university's computer science department, are
>  front-runners attracting private equity interest.
>
>  Prof Gilbert wants a lot more, and has set himself a target of 
beefing up
the new university's research base by
>  recruiting some high-profile scientific stars. Ernest Rutherford 
began
his work on splitting the atom in Manchester,
>  and was the most famous of the 22 Nobel prize winners that 
have studied
there. But Manchester has not had a Nobel
>  prize winner for the past 50 years and Prof Gilbert wants three 
on staff
within three years.
>
>  But while immediate investor interest in Manchester University 
may be
limited to its ability to begin pumping out
>  more successful spin-outs, Prof Gilbert also has some 
interesting views
on the future of higher education, which
>  could have longer-term implications for investors wanting to tap 
into one
of the world's few remaining growth
>  industries.
>
>  Prior to joining Manchester, Prof Gilbert had been running 
Melbourne
University for eight years. He set up Melbourne
>  Industry Private, a private university catering to large 
corporations,
and was one of the founders of Universitas
>  Global, an online Singapore-based university, in partnership with
Canada's Thomson Corporation and 17 universities
>  in Europe, North America and Asia.
>
>  Universitas was set up to offer an alternative to Asian students 
who
could not afford to pay for higher education in
>  the UK and the US, two countries courting overseas students. 
Prof Gilbert
estimates there is an unmet worldwide
>  demand for higher education of more than 30m students, which 
could rise
to 100m by the end of the decade. The global
>  market for higher education is currently worth more than Dollars 
100bn
(Pounds 55bn).
>
>  As a new boy, Prof Gilbert is keen not to ruffle sensitive British
feathers by backing Michael Beloff, president of
>  Oxford's Trinity College, who has warned that Oxford University 
might
eventually have to take itself private if it
>  wants to continue competing globally. Prof Gilbert has no 
intention of
recommending the privatisation of Manchester
>  University.
>
>  But he does believe that the private sector could play an important role
in bridging the growing gap between the
>  demand and supply for higher education around the world. Higher education
is "one of the last great craft
>  industries" that has still to go through its industrial revolution, and
traditional universities are not best placed
>  to deliver on any revolution. But they do have two big advantages -
branding and quality assurance - which
>  commercial rivals lack, and Prof Gilbert is keen to exploit.
>
>  While multinationals, such as Pearson (owners of the Financial Times),
Thomson and McGraw Hill are tapping into the
>  global education market, the UK has yet to see the emergence of quoted
for-profit schools to rival the US where the
>  industry is valued at Dollars 35bn and is one of the hottest stock market
sectors.
>
>  Apart from Nord Anglia in nursery education, and BPP in 
professional
education, there are few quoted UK companies in
>  the sector. If fund managers want a glimpse of how things might 
look 10
years down the line, they ought to invite
>  Prof Gilbert to lunch. [EMAIL PROTECTED] David Blackwell is 
away
>
On 29 Oct 04, at 18:10, pwd9148 wrote:

Ci era rimasta in canna questa:

http://www.e-laser.org/htm/news.asp?idNews=427

Se va bene cosi', qualcuno vada a pubblicarla: basta mettere 
la data giusta (ho messo 2002 e non 2004 per nasconderla in 
attesa di letture finali)

a

--
www.e-laser.org
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
--
www.e-laser.org
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Rispondere a