Liberal Democrat peer Lord Razzall, former chief executive of City solicitors Frere Cholmeley Bischoff and his party’s trade and industry spokesman in the House of Lords, is not letting party conferences or parliamentary controversy interrupt his money-making ambitions. As well as helping launch internet legal reporting specialist Law///Alert under the Enterprise Investment Scheme, he chairs phone system installer Telephone Maintenance Group, which has come to AIM with a £1.15 million issue at 3.5p.

Broker Hoodless Brennan handled the placing, which valued Worcestershire-based TMG at £2.6 million. As well as installing telephone systems, the company maintains them, with three principal manufacturers as customers: Nortel, Avaysa and NEC.

Founded in 1997 by managing director Jeff Williams and Ian Leask to cash in on de-regulation, TMG is the only UK company, apart from BT, to hold ‘solution partner’ status for the complete range of Nortel telephone systems. The company has lost money so far, but Hoodless predicts a break into profits of £200,000 in the year to next July.