Borders IT firm snaps up Edinburgh peer
Borders-based telecoms and IT business Soconnect has acquired an Edinburgh-headquar tered rival as it looks to connect more small firms with their remote workforces amid the pandemic.
The takeover of IT Centric (ITC), for an undisclosed sum, will give the enlarged group more than 500 customers UKwide and revenues in excess of £5 million.
IT Centric was founded in 2004 by managing director Gordon Sayers. Sayers and David Ellis, previously a nonexecutive director at IT Centric and a former Pwc partner, will join Campbell Fraser and Bob Bazley on the Soconnect’s board.
Fraser said :“The acquisition of ITC further increases the broad range of services So connect brings to our customers… we are now even better placed to support SMES’ remote workforces in the wake of Covid-19 and what will be the new ways of working.”
The deal adds 80 small and medium-sized enterprises (SM ES) to So Connect’ sc ustomer base, which now totals more than 500 across the UK. The combined group has a headcount of 38, supported by a nationwide network of 200 engineers.
In December 2019, Soconnect, which marks its tenth anniversary this year, secured a bolt-on deal with Netopa, one of Edinburgh’s top IT managed service providers.
Fraser is not ruling out further growth by acquisition over the next 12 to 18 months.
He said: “As with the Netopa acquisition, we are in a position of real financial strength including with around 80 per cent of our contracted revenue being recurring and we have again self-funded the acquisition.”