Partner Article

Sage to make Italian bid

THE recently installed chief executive of Sage is reportedly planning a massive bid for Italian business management firm TeamSystem.

The deadline for bids is Friday but Sage looks likely to beat two private equity groups for control of the firm.

Sage will offer £542m, outbidding offers from private equity firms HgCapital and Cinven, the FT reports.

Sage’s new chief executive, Guy Berruyer, who only took over in mid-July having previously run the accountancy specialist’s European and Asian business, will presumably get the credit if the deal goes through, though we’re guessing the bid has been in preparation for some time.

Sage this week said that trading was in line with expectations, and organic growth was strengthening.

The Newcastle-based company has made a series of buys in recent years, but all of these were on a much smaller scale.

TeamSystems makes enterprise resource planning, business intelligence, HR systems as well as storage and archiving products.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .