Specialist IT group SCISYS expects its £79m acquisition by Canadian tech giant CGI to be completed before the end of this year it said this week as it revealed a 2% increase in half-year revenues.
Directors at the Chippenham-headquartered group, which supplies innovative software and IT services to the space, government, media, commerce and defence sectors, surprised shareholders in June when they disclosed they had unanimously accepted an approach from CGI. 
Chairman Mike Love admitted takeover talks had some impact on its results for the six months to June 30 but said the firm was pleased with the group’s “continued solid operational performance”.
He added: “Understandably, the takeover offer from CGI significantly occupied SCISYS senior management and resulted in some exceptional expenditure. Notwithstanding this, we have delivered a creditable set of results for the period.”
“We are currently working with CGI to obtain the necessary regulatory approvals for the bid to proceed to the final court approval stage.” SCISYS shareholders approved the takeover on August 7.
“The business continues to perform in line with board expectations though, as already highlighted and in common with previous years, we expect our 2019 results to be more weighted towards the second half of the financial year.”
Half-year revenues came in at £29.4m while the order book increased from £92.2m to £102.5m, with notable wins being a €9.7m deal with Thales Alenia France for ground segment work on the Galileo satellite project and its media division adding a major European broadcaster through a key order for its proprietary OpenMedia newsroom software.
However, adjusted operating profit more than halved to £1.2m.
SCISYS was launched in 1980 as Science Systems, working primarily in the space sector with clients such as the European Space Agency.
It has since grown organically and through a string of strategic acquisitions and now supplies bespoke software systems and support services to blue-chip clients in the media & broadcast, government, defence and commerce sectors.
The group, which also has a base in Bristol, employs around 650 staff across its four UK and four German offices. Its blue-chip customers also include the Environment Agency, the Ministry of Defence, Airbus Defence & Space, the BBC and the National Trust.
Montreal-headquartered CGI was founded in 1976 and today is a leading IT and business consulting services firm with more than 77,000 employees across the world.
