Sanderson buys Anisa in £12m deal

AIM-listed software and IT services business Sanderson has bought Anisa for an enterprise value of £12m.

Anisa - which employs more than 90 staff and has offices in London, Runcorn, Liverpool and Solihull - specialises in the delivery of integrated supply chain and enterprise resource planning solutions. It has around 250 customers. Sanderson said Anisa complements its Enterprise division and the enlarged, merged business is expected to provide and develop incremental and synergistic market opportunities.

"The managed services, hosting services and cloud delivery services which have been developed by Anisa represent an exciting and enhanced service delivery option for existing Sanderson customers."

In the year to the end of December 2016, Anisa had audited revenue of £10m and pre-tax profit of £73,000.

Chairman Christopher Winn said: "Anisa and Sanderson have known each other for many years and though this transaction is a Sanderson acquisition, it feels more like a merger. Whilst Anisa and Sanderson have rarely competed in their respective target markets, they are very complementary in terms of their ethos and business model - providing cost-effective solutions, supported by providing quality service to customers thereby building and developing long-term relationships.

"The strategy of the combined business is to continue to develop the existing range of products and services delivered to existing customers; to further invest and develop the Anisa relationships with strategic partners and to provide additional investment in order to accelerate growth opportunities by attracting even more new customers."

At 1100 GMT, Sanderson shares were up 13% to 71.85p.