French IT company Sword Group has sold its two UK businesses for £27.8 million in a deal backed by Close Growth Capital.

French IT company Sword Group has sold its two UK businesses for £27.8 million in a deal backed by Close Growth Capital.

Pragma and Real Time, now renamed The Amor Group, was acquired in a management buy-out (MBO) led by Sword’s COO John Innes, who now becomes CEO of Amor.

Close provided equity and debt finance to fund the transaction, and the firm’s director James Blake is joining Amor’s board.

Amor has revenues of £32 million and 330 staff based in Scotland, London and Houston. By the end of the year it plans to expand its workforce by 50 and grow turnover to £50 million over the next three years, according to Blake.

Adds Blake, ‘We expect [this] will be an exceptional time to acquire small players with specialised knowledge at discounted multiples.’

Other investors in Amor include regional investment fund Scottish Enterprise and Clydesdale Bank, while Sword Group has retained a minority stake.

Aberdeen-headquartered Pragma provides operational IT support to oil and gas companies, while Glasgow-based Real Time is an IT consultancy with clients in the oil and gas, aviation, telecoms, utilities and public sectors. Both businesses will continue to trade under their own brands with the same management and employee teams.