London-listed RM looks to break into South-east Asia market within a year

RM Group, the London-listed IT supplier to schools, is to break into the South-east Asia market in the next 12 months.

Terry Sweeney, its chief executive, is considering options to open offices in Hong Kong and Singapore. "We have got an office in India that is 400 people strong, but there's a gap between our Australian, European and Middle Eastern operations," he said.

RM will build the South-east Asia operation along similar lines to its US business. It opened an office with just three people seven years ago, slowly growing its presence there to more than 100 staff. Oxford-based RM, which has designed software and computers for schools since the 1970s, gets about 87 per cent of its revenue from the UK and 8 per cent from the US. Although RM has a strong order book in Britain, education specialists are looking to expand overseas due to the spending cuts the coalition is imposing on the sector.

RM shares closed at 128p on Friday, down 1.54 per cent on the day. This values the company at around £120m.