Since then shares have risen 10-fold to capitalise the business at pounds 47.6m, rising 120p in a day after a presentation to 40 institutions at the group's City Road headquarters.Next week we should see the release of a prospectus to take Skynet's shares onto the AIM, with some pounds 2m to be raised at a price of 250p or more.The excitement lies in the product. The man behind it is 52-year-old Bob Yorke, who founded Crusader Alarms, subsequently sold to Rentokil, and co-founded Britannia Security Group.The company has so far only traded, albeit phenomenally actively, on the Ofex market, yet has caught investors' imaginations in a big way. Conversely, the company can quickly boost its share by adding new clients. It is presently expanding capacity in the south of England, with new contracts under negotiation. Analysts are looking for current year profits to reach pounds 5.4m against last year's pounds 4.6m before flotation costs. The prospective p/e looks high at 21 but reflects the quality of earnings and the excellent medium term prospects.Skynet is more speculative with no sales or profits and a product not yet launched - though that should be rectified within weeks, if not days. By using Universal Salvage they can off load this responsibility.A theoretical worry is that the company has a narrow customer base.

Five clients, including Direct Line and Eagle Star, accounted for 55 per cent of all vehicles handled. It is the biggest third party contractor, with a network of eight depots (including six huge auction sites), and has pioneered the widely-adopted classification system for crashed vehicles. A major concern for customers is that only vehicles repaired to a high safety standard should come back onto the road. Between 1992 and 1996 the number of vehicles handled has grown from 36,535 to 69,700, sales have doubled and pretax profits and earnings per share have more than trebled. The company has a significant opportunity to increase market share. Some 500,000 cars are written off in the UK each year, which means Universal Salvage has 14 per cent of the market. It disposes of write-offs on behalf of insurance companies and organisations with self-insured fleets.

A solid business poised for years of steady growth is Universal Salvage at 278p which disposes of cars after accidents. More speculative is Skynet Corporation, priced at 280p on the Ofex market and due to join AIM shortly, which has great hopes for its revolutionary car security product. Universal Salvage is yet another company riding the boom in big companies handing non-core activities to specialists that can do the job better. But while the shares were marked higher, some believe they remain overvalued.

Although having moved ahead from an October low of 150p, it seems that on their currrent price they are expecting the impossible. Analyst Peter Caldwell, of Nikko Europe, says profits would have to be up to 20 per cent higher than the range forecast for 1997 of between pounds 260m and pounds 280m. A boost in orders last year helped propel the shares, but the orders have since returned to normal levels At 227p, the shares are overvalued.. Among the new companies flocking to join, or having recently joined, the stock market are some with strategies for making money out of vehicles. Remarkably, RMC has revealed it has upped its stake to 4.4 per cent. Whatever its intentions, there must be little upside left for speculators - otherwise, the shares should be held through to the culmination of the bid.Investors were pleased by the news from Rolls-Royce that it would pull out of steam power generation business with a charge against profits of pounds 248m.