The flotation of Datalex will create some new dot.com millionaires and generate significant profits for a number of early investors in the software company. Beneficiaries will include founding shareholder Mr Neil Wilson, ICC Venture Capital, Enterprise Ireland and financier Mr Dermot Desmond.

Among the shareholders who plan to sell some shares in the offering are Mr Wilson, the chief executive, who owns 25 per cent of the company. He plans to sell 647,000 shares, or just 5 per cent of his shareholding. Based on the midrange proposed euro offer price that sale should raise about €5 million (£6.35 million) for Mr Wilson while his remaining 18 per cent stake in Datalex would be worth about €95 million. Director Mr Jim Peters plans to sell 90,000 of his 992,933 shares reducing his stake from 1.91 per cent to 1.32 per cent. His sale could raise €697,000 and leave him with a holding valued at just less than €7 million.

ICC Bank owns 11.81 per cent of Datalex through its venture capital operations. The bank is selling less than 10 per cent of its stake and raising just under €4 million which is understood to be very close to the bank's total investment in the company. It will still have an 8.2 per cent share of Datalex valued at about €44 million.

Mr Dermot Desmond's IIU investment vehicle was an early investor in Datalex. It is listed in the prospectus as holding a 9.9 per cent stake and selling 814,000 shares leaving it with 6.32 per cent of Datalex. The shares being sold belong to a vehicle beneficially owned by Mr Desmond himself, but half of the block will not be sold unless the "greenshoe" or extra allocation of shares to the market is exercised.

If the whole block is sold Mr Desmond will raise €6.3 million. Based on the approximate ICC entry price, this could mean a profit of about €3 million for Mr Desmond. IIU Nominees' remaining stake will be valued at about €34 million. Enterprise Ireland bought just more than 2 per cent of Datalex in 1998 in line with its policy of taking stakes in developing software companies in addition to grant-aiding them. That stake cost the State agency €635,000.

The agency will only sell shares in the flotation if extra shares are made available to investors under the greenshoe option and this will only happen if demand is well in excess of the initial 16,775,000 shares being offered to the market.

If Enterprise Ireland sells under the greenshoe, it will sell 106,947 shares or 10 per cent of its stake, reducing its holding to 1.4 per cent. It would raise about €828,000, significantly more than its original investment, while it would continue to hold a stake worth about €7.5 million.

Other selling shareholders include private clients at Goodbody Stockbrokers, whose shares are held through Skerries Nominees, and three Datalex executives - Mr Jeff Kennedy, Mr Mark Tilden and Mr John McQuillan.