FEXCO, the rapidly expanding and highly profitable Kerry-based financial and travel services company, has no intention of going public, according to its managing director, founder and 50 per cent shareholder, Mr Brian McCarthy.

The company is also continuing to negotiate the acquisition of a 75 per cent stake in the Gulliver tourist information and reservation operation from Bord Failte and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board. Fexco would need to invest some

£2 million to develop the system and it may pay £3.5 million or more for the stake, under negotations which are understood to be nearing completion.

Fexco is also in the process of building a £5 million state-of-the-art teleservices centre in Killorglin, Co. Kerry.

This is in addition to its existing businesses - 2,000 foreign exchange bureaux throughout Ireland and Britain, tourist and business value-added-tax reclaim operations, worldwide money transfer and international payments operations, and its prize bond management and data processing business. Fexco also operates a retail stockbroking service based in Dublin as well as its own treasury management and its own software development operations.

Because the company has been expanding so rapidly there has been speculation that it could be floated on the stock market to fund ongoing growth. Mr McCarthy dismisses the notion. "Fexco has no requirement to go public. There are enough companies going public at the moment. It's not even in our medium-term plan."

The former AlB assistant branch manager presides over the growing and highly profitable business he set up in 1981 because AIB was unable to extend its branch opening hours to suit foreign visitors who wanted to change currencies. What started in Co. Kerry as a couple of foreign exchange bureau has grown into a multi million pound niche financial and travel services business.

Mr McCarthy is reluctant however to divulge annual profits which industry sources estimate to be well over £2 million. "If I did that I would have lots of fellows coming down here telling me I should go public and I can do without that."

Fexco - the foreign exchange company - now has 2,000 foreign exchange bureaux in Ireland and Britain. But the business has grown far beyond changing cash for tourists. Fexco now has a massive tourist VAT refund business with customers such as Marks & Spencer, Harrods and Liberty. It has an expanding business expenses VAT reclaim operation where customers include General Electric.

It operates the Western Union franchise in Ireland and Britain for worldwide money transfers. Some 70 people work seven days a week from 7 a.m. until 11 p.m. in shifts to operate this service at times that suit the customer. It involves sending money to areas "where banking systems are poor and for people who are unbanked", according to Mr McCarthy. Fexco's Western Union business in Killorglin deals with 2,500 to 3,00(> telephone calls a day.

Another business is Fexco's computerised international foreign currency payments system used by organisations worldwide that need to make payments in a variety of currencies. Yet another business is the management of the day-to-day operations of the Prize Bonds which An Post markets.

The company employs about 300 people in Killorglin and Dingle and about another 150 between offices in Dublin, Dubai, Australia, Malta, as well as in Britain, France and Spain. The addition of teleservices businesses - as the operator of the Coca Cola customer information telephone line for Ireland and Britain, Fexco deals with about 700 calls per day - means that accommodation at the attractive stone-fronted Fexco Centre in Killorglin town has become cramped. A new £5 million specialist teleservices centre is under construction. The provision of teleservices to brand name companies is a growing business, according to Mr McCarthy. When the new centre is completed Fexco's teleservices operation will expand rapidly, he says.

Another growling business is stock-broking. "As more and more people become shareholders for the first time, they will look for a customer-friendly service. In Kerry, there are many farmers whose shares in the Kerry group are more valuable than their firms. And the Irish Permanent flotation meant that a huge number of people became shareholders for the first time. And now there is the Norwich Union. And, as people will have to start providing for their own pensions or topping them up, they will start to look to shares." Fexco's stock-broking operation "started small but is growing well", he said.

Fexco's success is largely based on its design and development of effective and efficient software to meet clients' needs, and its investment in sophisticated telecommunications systems. "A very high proportion of our gross profit is ploughed back into software development. We can do that because we are a private company. There are no shareholders looking for dividends. We hope that investment will guarantee the future of our workers," says Mr McCarthy.

More and more of the business of the future will be done on sophisticated telephone systems linked to computers, Mr McCarthy believes. The company is constantly in negotiations with a number of companies on new software development ideas "new ways of handling things". That is the key to its survival and growth in an intensely competitive market, Mr McCarthy believes. Fexco can continue to grow in the financial services market. "We operate in a niche area. If we can perform our services better, quicker and more efficiently and at a better price than the banks, we will continue to get the business. We do not compete on the big deals. That is the banks' forte. We like to look after the small guys."

Fexco has taken partners in some of its businesses. In its tourist VAT refund business in Britain, its partner is the Swedish company ETS. Fexco bought out its original partner in the business, Bank of Scotland. In Ireland, it operates the service with Bank of Ireland as its equity partner.

Some market sources are speculating that the company may eventually become a takeover target - and could possibly be taken over by one of its current partners. Content with its current status, Mr McCarthy is not interested in speculating about what might or might not happen in the long term.

Fexco's growth is an example of what could be achieved in any town in Ireland, according to Mr McCarthy. "Employment does not need to be concentrated in the big centres. The development of communications technology allows the work to be brought to the people and allows the work to be done in a way that suits the workers," he said.

With the availability of labour unlikely to pose a problem - Fexco has a local labour market that stretches throughout Kerry and as far as Cork - and no shortage of development ideas, Fexco is likely to continue to grow rapidly in the years ahead.