Stentor's plan to raise £2 million (€2.54 million) before March 2000 has largely been successful and negotiations for an overdraft facility were being concluded, the chairman of the Irish telecoms company told shareholders yesterday.

Mr John Uttley said £1 million had been raised through a shareholder loan and trade finance, and a further £950,000 had been secured through an invoice discounting facility and vendor financing.

Stentor provides customised telecoms solutions for corporate customers. Mr Uttley said that after a deficit of £4.3 million had appeared on the balance sheet in shareholders' funds in the year to March 31st, £3 million had been received from the Co-Operation Benefit Retirement Fund, which controls 82 per cent of Stentor's equity, through proceeds from an open offer.

"While the directors will keep this matter under review, the directors believe this situation is being dealt with by the move to profitability and the long-term financing," he said.

Mr Gerard O'Keeffe, chief executive, said there had been a huge raising of awareness of the potential of e-commerce which would provide opportunities for business-to-business e-commerce services.

He said unprofitable contracts had been terminated and four revenue line were now producing profit. It was now "a matter of growing all those lines".