Management software specialist The Sage Group plc has enhanced its product offering after buying a majority shareholding in a French company.

Management software specialist The Sage Group plc has enhanced its product offering after buying a majority shareholding in a French company.

The LSE-listed group now holds some 70% of XRT, a treasury management software company, following an all cash deal. XRT’s shares were sold for €1.67 each, which has valued the deal at €43.8 million (£30 million).

XRT is listed on Euronext Paris and, in accordance with French listing regulations, Sage can now bid for the remaining shares in the company.

The deal follows Sage’s June acquisition of IT company Xperts and the later purchase of Creative Software, a Singaporean payroll and human resource management systems provider it bought the following month. The group’s acquisitions this year also include Snowdrop Systems, a human resources, personnel and payroll management software specialist.

The latest acquisition develops Sage’s range of products in the cash management sector and complements its Concept business, which it bought four years ago.

Sage has been supplying management software systems to small businesses since it was founded in 1981. It has 13,400 employees serving 5.4 million customers worldwide. In the year to October 2006, Sage made a £935.6 million turnover and a £221.2 million pre-tax profit.

XRT supplies treasury management and payment software to 6,000 medium-sized businesses in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Latin America. Last year it generated revenues of £22.2 million.