Island based kettle safety controls company Strix has announced it is planning an initial public offering on the London stock exchange’s ’junior’ AIM market.

The business will issue new shares at 100pence each in the placing expected to raise up to £190 million.

Strix has its headquarters at Ronaldsway and a manufacturing outlet at Ramsey and a total of 71 people work for the business in the island.

Strix says it is seeking admission to AIM ’to enhance the profile of the business and provide permanent capital, enabling the company to strengthen its new product development capabilities for the long term benefit of the business and its customers.’

Strix hopes the entire net proceeds of the placing, in combination with new debt facilities, will provide an exit from its current investor group, led by AAC Capital Partners, which has held a stake in Strix since 2005.

Following the admission, the board will include Gary Lamb as interim non-executive chairman, Mark Bartlett as chief executive and Raudres Wong as chief financial officer.

Strix was established in 1982 and was taken to worldwide prominence by entrepreneur Eddie Davies, also former owner of Bolton Wanderers Football Club.

Strix has an impressive number of customers including Tesco, Tefal, Siemens and Philips.

It is estimated the company has a market share in excess of 38 per cent by volume of the global kettle safety control market.

Strix controls can detectwhen water has boiled and switch off the device to prevent it boiling dry.

Mark Bartlett, Isle of Man based chief excutive officer of Strix Group Plc, said: ’I am delighted to announce the proposed admission to AIM of Strix, which will position the company for the next stage of its development.

’In particular, admission to AIM will provide an appropriate structure for the long term development of the business, raise our international profile and enable us to invest in our new product development capabilities to the benefit of our valued customers.

’Strix has a robust, highly cash generative business model.

’We have a growing global market share and in addition to the key OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) in China, we work with a significant number of the best known brands and retailers worldwide.

’We look forward to becoming a public company and further growth of our business in existing and new markets.’

Admission to AIM is expected to take place on August 8.

Gary Lamb is no stranger to Strix having been a former finance and IT director of the business for 11 years, leaving in 2007.

He is the chief executive officer of Manx Telecom and played a vital role in leading the telecommunications business through a successful initial public offering on AIM in 2014. The Strix board intends to appoint a permanent non-executive chairman by the end of the first quarter 2018. Following this appointment, Mr Lamb is expected to step step down from being interim non-executive chairman to be a non-executive director.

Globally, Strix estimates that 174 million kettles were sold in 2016, giving the company a 38 per cent global market share.

Strix has six operational sites globally, of which two are in the Isle of Man, including the headquarters at Ronaldsway, one in the UK, two in Hong Kong and one in China.

Strix has manufacturing operations in Ramsey and in Guangzhou, China.

Strix’s revenue increased to £88.7 million in the year ended December 31, 2016, from £79.9 million in2015.

Pre-tax profits grew from £21.8 million to £22 million.

The directors intend to implement a ’progressive dividend policy’ and the company is promising a dividend yield of seven per cent for the year ending December 31, 2017.

CEO Mr Bartlett is set to remain in London for most of this week attending top-level meetings as the business world takes in the news.