Sage buys Swiss biz management firm

Geordie accounts specialist Sage is paying £7.5m in cash for a Swiss enterprise management company.

Sage is buying Pro-Concept SA, which specialises in mid-market enterprise resource planning software. The company is the largest such vendor in French-speaking Switzerland - how many rivals it has for that crown is not clear.

Pro-Concept was started in 1987 and the three company founders are staying with the firm. It has 400 customers and last year made revenues of £9.5m and operating profit of £826,000. It specialises in public sector projects and, cannily for Switzerland, clock manufacturers.

Sage CEO Paul Walker said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange: "The acquisition of Pro-Concept significantly strengthens our market position in Switzerland and gives us the opportunity to expand Pro-Concept's product penetration into German-speaking Switzerland."

Sage also told the Exchange it is on course to hit revenue and profit targets. It expects revenues for the full year ended 30 September 2007 to be £1.18bn and pre-tax profit of £254m.

Full results will be released at Sage's AGM on 9 May.

The Stock Exchange statement is here. ®