Despite the strong recovery in technology markets over the past couple of days, travel software group Datalex has been forced to pull back the price at which its shares have been floated on the Dublin and Nasdaq markets.

Two weeks ago, Datalex indicated its intention to float its shares between €7.61 and €8.31. But once the bookbuilding exercise was completed, the flotation price has been scaled back to €6.84 for each ordinary share and €11.50 for each American Depositary Receipt listed on Nasdaq. Each ADR is made up of two ordinary shares.

After an initial flurry, Datalex shares fell back on the Dublin market. From the initial public offering price of €6.84, the shares traded initially up to €8.20 before steadily weakening to close on €7.25, up 6 per cent on the IPO price. On Nasdaq, the ADR shares traded from the IPO price of €11.50 up to $12 but back down to $11.50 by the end of the morning session in New York.

Datalex's finance director, Mr Liam Booth, said the 16.8 million shares sold into the flotation were evenly divided between institutional investors in Ireland, Europe and the US. "We got a broad spread of investors," he said.

On the cut in the pricing, Mr Booth said the technology market had fallen almost 20 per cent since Datalex first announced its IPO early this month.

"We couldn't ignore the market and we had to be realistic. We took the advice of our investment bankers on the final pricing."

The lower flotation price means the various directors and shareholders who sold shares into the flotation have enjoyed slightly smaller windfalls. Chief executive Mr Neil Wilson will receive €4.4 million for the 647,000 shares he has sold while director Mr Jim Peters will receive €616,000.

Mr Wilson's remaining 18 per cent stake in Datalex is worth €79.2 million at the IPO price while Mr Peters's 1.32 per cent stake is worth €5.8 million.

Mr Dermot Desmond's IIU investment vehicle will receive €2.77 million for the 407,000 shares it has sold but IIU's remaining 8 per cent stake is worth just under €35 million. ICC Venture Capital has made just under €4 million from the IPO and has retained a 8.2 per cent stake worth €36 million.

Enterprise Ireland did not sell shares into the IPO and its 2 per cent stake - bought for €635,000 - is worth €8.8 million at the IPO price. IIU and Enterprise Ireland will, however, raise more money from Datalex if underwriters Credit Suisse First Boston invoke the "greenshoe" option over the next 30 days to meet unsatisfied demand.

Datalex is raising almost €109 million from the placing and following the IPO will have more than €170 million in cash to pursue acquisitions and develop new products.

Mr Booth said some of the funds would be used for acquisitions although Datalex is not at the moment in any detailed negotiation.