Reseller ANS is hitting the acquisition trail to help it fulfil its vision of becoming the UK’s top cloud computing provider.

The Manchester-based VAR has been offered a loan of up to £5m from Bank of Scotland Corporate after making the north-west shortlist for The Sunday Times Bank of Scotland Corporate Entrepreneur Challenge.

Although the loan would have been interest free had ANS won for the region, its progression into the latter stages of the contest secured it the bank's backing.

Chris Malthouse, financial director at ANS, said the VAR intends to complete a purchase within six months. “Our vision is to become the leading UK cloud-based provider of desktop and server infrastructure. We have a lot of the pieces of the jigsaw; what is missing is a datacentre facility and high-speed network,” he said.

“I am not aware of RBS lending anything in the Manchester area and it is incredibly difficult for an average reseller to borrow right now.”

Greg Carlow, managing director of VAR Repton, said despite the high volume of assets going cheap, there is a lack of viable acquisition targets. “Companies are trying to get valuations from two years ago or have let things get to the point where it is not worth taking them on.”