Capita snares Carillion IT Services

Rings the changes in Scotland

Capita is buying the IT reseller arm of the construction services group Carillion plc for £36m on a cash free, debt free basis.

Carillion IT Services Ltd, or CITS for short, was inherited by Carillion in 2008, as part of the acquisition of the UK construction company Alfred McAlpine.

CITS sells outsourcing, managing services and networking infrastructure kit - it's a Cisco Gold partner - to external clients. CITS is forecasting, on a pro forma, standalone basis, an operating profit for the year ending 31 December 2009 of £3.7m on a turnover of £66m. It has 440 employees across the UK, including 190 in Scotland.

Capita will fold the business into its IT services division, which we suppose, could also be called CITS. It anticipates "significant operational and cost synergies" from the merger, which is often shorthand for job losses.

Paul Pindar, chief executive of Capita, said CITS will significantly enhance and expand Capita's position in the IT services market and also bolster the company's position in Scotland. ®