Founders preparing for Computacenter buyout
Management buyout tabled to determine systems and services integrator's future
Computacenter (CC) could return to the privacy of being a privately-held company once again, if a management buyout by CC’s founders, Peter Ogden and Philip Hulme, is approved.
In September, CC reported a 73 per cent drop in pre-tax profit for the six months to 30 June, while in July the company issued its third profit warning in seven months (CRN, 19 September).
In a statement issued last week, CC confirmed that it had received a preliminary proposal, which it said may or may not lead to an offer being made for the whole of the issued, and to be issued, share capital of the company.
“An Independent Committee of the Board has been formed to consider the proposal, consisting of Nick Cosh and Cliff Preddy (independent non-executive directors). The Ind-ependent Committee is being advised by HSBC Bank. Discussions are at an early stage and the Independent Com-mittee of the Board would like to emphasise that there is no certainty that any offer will be made for CC. A further announcement will be made when appropriate,” said the statement.
It is believed that Ron Sandler, CC’s executive chairman, Mike Norris, CC’s chief executive, and Tony Conophy, CC’s finance director, are also involved in the approach. Tony Conophy told CRN that there was nothing further to add to the statement issued by CC last week.
George O’Connor, technology analyst at Shore Capital, told CRN: “It would have been nice to see CC do more in terms of restructure. It is cash-rich and should use this to restructure. From our forecasts it has around £20m of operating profit.
“It’s hard to restructure on the public market, whereas on the private market you can go in, do what you want and then slip it back into the stock market. It could be that the firm is restructured and then sold on to a large private company.”
One industry source told CRN the MBO is a sign that CC hasn’t changed with the times. “They’ve had several profit warnings this year and now realise that they need to make some changes. I think Ogden will think about splitting the product and services businesses, then focus on the services side and get rid of the products side.”