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Trustmarque swallows Scot services house Opin Systems
First buy since summer MBO and refinance deal
Top table Microsoft Gold partner Trustmarque Solutions has devoured Glasgow-based tech services and consultancy minnow Opin Systems for an undisclosed sum.
Opin, which set up in 1990, counts some heavy duty customers on its books including the UN, The Student Loans Company, The Scottish Prison Service and RBS.
It sells consultancy services on IT strategy, project management, infrastructure, planning and deployment and, business continuity and disaster recovery.
Like all Microsoft enterprise partners, York-based Trustmarque is continuing to build a larger consultancy practice as the profits derived from reselling licenses continues to wane.
This is the first acquisition since management staged a buy-out back in June and then agreed a refinance package with HSBC a month later.
Scott Haddow, CEO at Trustmarque, said in a canned statement that it can add "scale, capabilities and resources" to the relatively small operations at Opin.
Opin founder and MD Graham Curran and his small band of consultants will join Trustmarque. Curran will lead the Opin division.
For the year to 30 June 2012, as an SME Opin was allowed to file abbreviated accounts that showed the business had net assets of £776k.
In the year to 31 August 2012, Trustmarque made a gross profit of £15.9m, up 15 per cent year-on-year, and services and solutions represented some £7.1m of this. Turnover was £131.3m, up 14 per cent, and net profit came in at £3.82m, versus £3.39m. ®
Biting the hand that feeds IT
