Ramesys sold to Capita

Rumours confirmed as education-focused VAR bought for £15m

Signing on the dotted line: speculation has been mounting over the acquisition of Ramesys

Capita Group has acquired public sector VAR Ramesys for £15m after weeks of speculation.

The Nottingham-based reseller, which employs more than 300 people, specialised in the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) and recently secured a further £14.9m in funding from Lloyds Development Capital to pursue more BSF contracts. It also revealed to CRN that it had a £170m+ pipeline of business over the next five years.

Despite the strong pipeline, the VAR made a pro forma operating loss of £2.9m on turnover of £34m in 2009.

Paul Pindar, chief executive of Capita Group, said: "Both Ramesys' existing client base and the nature of its business provides powerful synergies with our existing ICT and software services business.

"This acquisition will allow us not only to broaden and deepen our own expertise in the education technology market but will allow us to compete for larger and more complex education IT projects," he said.

CRN understands that Ramesys chief executive Mark Chambers is to leave the firm with immediate effect.

However in a press release statement, he said: "The backing, both business and financial, of a company the size of Capita, will enhance significantly our ability to exploit the huge, untapped potential in the integrated education ICT market.

"In addition a number of Capita's existing businesses and services fit naturally with Ramesys for the delivery of a number of commercial projects and public sector initiatives," Chambers said.

As this article went to press there was no further information available on whether there would be any redundancies as the two firms combine.