Novosco joins Premier League with NetDef acquisition

Belfast-based VAR secures the custom of two unnamed top-flight football clubs with seven-figure purchase of managed services and IT security outfit NetDef

Public sector supplier Novosco now counts two Premier League football clubs among its customers after acquiring IT security solutions and managed services specialist NetDef.

Belfast-based Novosco, which bills itself as a managed cloud specialist, announced today it has acquired Cheshire-based NetDef for an undisclosed, seven-figure sum.

The move will add £4m to Novosco's circa-£21m turnover and bring in many new clients, including a number of metropolitan police forces, NHS trusts, financial services firms and two unnamed Premier League football clubs.

Novosco claims to work with half of Northern Ireland's top 100 companies, as well as many of the top UK health trusts, universities and housing associations. It has offices in Belfast, Manchester, Dublin and Cork.

Novosco said the addition of NetDef will bolster its presence in the English market and add a "world-class" security specialism to its service offering. Founded in 1996 by managing director Dave Beesley, NetDev has 20 staff, propelling Novosco's headcount to 140.

"NetDef is a well-established provider of network and security solutions to some of the UK's most high-profile organisations, and its expertise and competence have seen it entrusted with data and projects of the utmost public sensitivity," said Patrick McAliskey, managing director of Novosco. "Working with Dave Beesley and his expert team will provide Novosco with added scale, and an important new dimension to our service offering as we seek to further grow our business across the UK and Ireland."

Beesley (pictured above at NetDef's Cheshire offices with NetDef's Sue Beesley and Novosco's John Lennon and Patrick McAliskey), added: "We have long admired Novosco, and we felt that there was a very strong cultural alignment between the two companies. The complementary expertise that we have will allow us to further enhance and deepen the services that we offer to existing and new clients. We very much look forward to working with Patrick, John, and their team."

For its financial year 2015, Novosco Ltd posted a pre-tax profit of £2.19m on revenues that rose seven per cent to £20.85m. It claims it invested £345,000 of capital expenditure in the business in 2015, as well as forging partnerships with Azure and AWS.