Through no fault of its own, TeleCity was caught in the eye of a storm caused by spectacular falls in the global value of technology stocks. In late May as the company was finalising its offer, an almost unprecedented set of events caused the float to be pulled at literally the 11th hour. Falls in tech stocks on Wall Street and then London were followed by the online retailers Boo.com calling in the receivers - a move which further hit confidence. TechMark fell 15 per cent while NASDAQ was down 30 per cent. Despite this blow, the company and their advisers kept their focus and TeleCity was able to float less than a month later.

TeleCity, set up just two years ago by three Manchester University scientists, is a shining example of how technical knowledge can be taken into the commercial market. From a standing start the company's value has risen from £550m to around £700m. TeleCity, through its TeleCity Internet Exchanges, known as TIXs, provides co-location, round the clock systems engineering and additional services to a range of Internet and telecoms businesses. Since 1998, TeleCity has established TIXs in Manchester, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, London (two sites), Stockholm and recently Dublin. By the end of this year it plans to have 12 across Europe.

Manchester professionals from law firm Eversheds, accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, venture capital group 3i and corporate finance boutique Rickitt Mitchell & Partners all played significant roles in the process. The £124m raised by the float will help the Internet and technical services company expand around the world. Peter Halpin, a corporate partner at Eversheds in Manchester says: "It was fascinating, a real roller-coaster." "TeleCity effectively signalled the end of the technology bubble. It was probably the biggest casualty of the bubble bursting, but then led the recovery of the high tech sector." Evershed's office in Manchester was chosen as the venue for a beauty parade involving some of the most prestigious merchant banks in London. "This really set the tone that this was a Manchester company and this was going to be a Manchester deal." The deal itself was "extremely complex" and challenging for Peter Halpin and his team. Even though it was a UK listing, there was a global offering. This meant something called a green shoe had to be used. A green shoe is a financial mechanism for stabilising share prices if there is volatility. Mr Halpin believes this was a first for Manchester, saying: "I don't think a Manchester firm had ever done this before, it was a really interesting feature." In addition, the TeleCity deal was also ground-breaking because it became one of the first, and probably the largest company to use new Stock Exchange rules which allowed young companies - without a three year trading record - to join the full-list, rather than the junior Alternative Investment market. "This is the biggest deal I have been involved in. I was the lead partner and my job was to co-ordinate the whole thing" said Mr Halpin. In the run up to the beginning of trading - scheduled for May 23, all was going well. But the storm clouds began to gather on May 19 - the US high-tech market NASDAQ suffered heavy losses, which was passed on to the UK TechMARK.

The situation deteriorated further when online retailer Boo.com went into receivership. Another High profile dot.com company, Lastminute, also suffered heavy losses. As a result the weekend news-papers forecast doom and gloom for the high tech sector. The float would still have gone ahead if the market had stabilised on the Monday, the day before float. But the market fell further and led to the decision to pull the float with Mr Halpin recalling: "We were all gathered at Goldman Sachs on Monday night and were just hours away. The day had seen further falls on the market and Goldman Sachs, with the company's agreement, decided to postpone the float. "It was quite odd because we had raised sufficient money to list - we could have pressed ahead, but because of the volatility of the market, no-one knew what the share price was going to be. "We did not want to begin the relationship with the City with a plunging share price." Mr Halpin continued: " We were literally 12 hours away from conditional dealing beginning." A few weeks later, on June 20, Mr Halpin received a call from TeleCity's finance director Martyn Ellis, informing him that the institutions wanted the company to go to the market again. In the space of just two days, the teams from the banks, brokers, lawyers and advisers gathered in London to re-launch the float. "I think we stunned everybody by coming back so quickly. It was a fantastic team effort. We were all determined that nothing was going to cause another delay."

Stuart Moss a director at Manchester corporate finance advisory firm Rickitt Mitchell & Partners has been involved with TeleCity since January 1998 when the business was launched. Throughout the float Mr Moss worked closely with the board, co-ordinating information and helping with the overall process. He says: "It has been an amazing story so far. I can remember walking into an empty building at Manchester Science Park with the directors, when they had the investment from 3i and nothing else. "The float is just another step for them, and they are still very focused on growth and looking forward."

PricewaterhouseCoopers provided a range of advice on subjects including tax, due diligence and employee advice. Partner Phil Hine, head of the Mergers and Acquisitions team, said: "TeleCity is an excellent company with vision and foresight. "One highlight was that we did some very, very important tax structuring for the company which will save them a very substantial sum of money." Clive Austin, investment director at 3i in Manchester spotted the potential of TeleCity and its founders in 1998, and invested £1.3m in the fledgling company. The venture capital group funded further growth and by flotation had invested £19m. He says: " I worked closely with Mike sand his team over the last two years. TeleCity is a great example of what can be achieved by a venture capital team working together to generate real value in a short period of time. "From start up to flotation in two years is pretty unprecedented. I have enjoyed every minute of my involvement. After the float, 3i realised about £45m in cash by reducing its stake from around 40 per cent to just above 30 per cent. The group's remaining stake is now worth over £200m. Mr Kelly is full of praise for the Manchester professionals involved, stating: "I was delighted with the quality of advice and support we received from our Manchester advisors. "I think they were the equal of the London-based advisors we used and met. Eversheds, 3i, Rickitt Mitchell & Partners and Pwc, have supported and advised the business with great care, wisdom and much good humour throughout."