Less Than 20% Of UK Companies Expected To Be Euro-OK

With Britain still taking a wait-and-see attitude toward the euro, Europe's newly introduced common currency, it's not surprising that technology research firm International Data Corp. (IDC), Framingham, Mass., projects that less than 20% of all UK companies will have completed their euroconversion efforts by the end of 1999. Nor is it surprising that by year's end 70% of banks and 50% of communications and media companies will have made the switch. But about 33% of manufacturers are expected to be euro-compliant by the end of this year, a surprisingly high percentage, until, as IDC notes, Britain's sizable export markets and the relatively large amount of foreign direct investment in factories in Britain are taken into account.