</ Specialist Computer Holdings Ltd has acquired French reseller EBC Informatique in a move that will make SCH one of the largest players in the market.

Birmingham, UK-based SCH, which claims to be Europe's largest privately held IT company, paid an undisclosed sum to acquire the 100-strong Reims-based company with operations in Lille, Marseilles, Mulhouse, Nantes and Strasbourg, and clients including SNCF and France Telecom.

SCH said it plans to integrate ECB into its French hardware reselling business Allium, which it claims is the largest such operation in France, with over 1,300 staff and annual revenue of over 1bn euros ($980m).

This is the latest deal for SCH in France, following the acquisition of reseller Burhmann in May, and in March of firms Metrologie France and Metrologie Systems. SCH's main rival Computacenter Plc continues to suffer a slump in demand within its core hardware reselling business, and unlike SCH, its strategy has been to ramp up its skills in managed services, which continues to show strong growth for the company.

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