Skillsgroup buys Pontis for pounds 34m

SKILLSGROUP, the IT services and training company, has bought Pontis Consulting in a deal worth up to pounds 34m.

Skillsgroup also said it is issuing pounds 11.9m worth of new shares to help fund the initial pounds 19.5m consideration for the computer-systems consultants, which focuses on the financial services sector with blue-chip clients including Barclays, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and Lloyds TSB. Another pounds 7.4m is payable providing that Pontis, which booked a pre-tax profit of pounds 2.2m on pounds 8.2m revenues in 1998, achieves a pre-tax profit of pounds 3.3m for the year to 31 May 1999, while the final pounds 7.1m, in shares and loan notes, depends on 12 key managers remaining with group for the next two to three years.