Co. Inc., jet to Bermuda next week Friday to meet with prospective investors in their latest IPO (initial public offering), due to be released soon.

They expect there will be significant interest generated locally in the new product from institutional investors and high net worth individuals.

Baron already has about 30 clients locally, some of whom have invested in other IPOs underwritten by the firm on the NASDAQ exchange.

Founded in November 1991, Baron is also a break-away stock broking and investment banking firm that emerged from the century-old New York-based brokerage company, D.H. Blair, which had been under investigation since 1989 by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Senior vice president, Mr. John Gilbert, was one of the score of top executives involved in the international client list that left Blair to set up Baron.

He said: "We were the largest producing group at D.H. Blair. There were a group of about 20 individuals, all senior vice presidents on Wall Street at D.H. Blair. We broke off and started our own company and called it A.R. Baron.

Since then A.R. Baron has grown from the 20 original members that came from the old company to about 100. So we are now the size of the old company.

"We were the only group at D.H. Blair calling overseas. Most New York investment banks focus their business in America. We were 20 guys at the company who focused on business overseas. We became the most successful and decided to make a whole company out of it.

"At Baron, we were calling to England. And 70 percent of my clients were from England, until one client moved to Bermuda and we started looking at the possibility of interest in our products in Bermuda. We have found people there very receptive to what we've had to say.

"In Bermuda, we have trust accounts and individual clientele. We began the business concentrating on high net worth individuals. And later we were put in contact with trust companies and institutions.

"We will be at the Princess Hotel for the weekend starting June 23, so that we would be available to meet those who might have an interest in our next IPO.'' The investment banking firm's business is 90 percent non-US clientele, mainly in the UK.

Mr. Gilbert, said: "We deal primarily with IPOs, having done three in the last three years. Each one is up over 200 percent.'' The firm's work includes the launch of Cypros Pharmaceuticals (CYPRU) at $6.30 in November 1992. By this April 13, its stock was trading at $30 a share and a week later there was a stock split of 2.5:1 of the outstanding common shares.

Baron executives this week said that the price has jumped to $54 a share.

Cypros is a development stage biopharmaceutical company based in Carlsbad, California, that is developing small molecule drugs that facilitate the body's ability to generate metabolic energy under low blood flow conditions.

In September 1993, Baron was involved in the launch of Innovir Laboratories (INVRU) IPO at $5.25 a share. By April 13, 1995, the price was up to $24 and this week, bid and asking prices were at $27 and $33, respectively.

Innovir is a development stage biotechnology company which was started in 1989 to develop a new class of biopharmaceutical therapeutic agents based on catalytic RNA enzymes, or ribozymes.

The New York company is leveraging its patented, proprietary core technology to develop product candidates for hepatitis B virus infection and acute promylocytic leukemia (APL).

Innovir last month reported second quarter losses of more than $1.1 million for the three months to the end of March.

The third IPO also involved stock that has appreciated significantly.

California-based VOXEL (VOXLU) stock was offered to the public in an IPO by Baron at $5.50 last November. Two months ago the stock was trading at $12 and this week at $13.

VOXEL is engaged in the development and commercialisation of a sophisticated system that yields film-based, hard copy images of the internal structure of the body.

The company's system, currently in proto-type form, is being designed to interface with existing medical scanners to produce "three dimensional X-Rays.'' Last month, VOXEL reported a pro forma net loss of more than $1.3 million for the quarter to March 31.