Telford IT company sold in multi-million pound deal

Experts from a Shropshire accountancy firm have helped to secure the multi-million pound sale of a local IT and security company to one of the UK’s fastest growing businesses.

The team from Dyke Yaxley Chartered Accountants, in Shrewsbury, joined forces with Aaron & Partners, also from the county town, to secure the £3.9 million sale of Rockford IT to SysGroup.

This deal marks SysGroup’s sixth company acquisition in the last three years, and will give Rockford IT, from Telford, the capability to operate on a world stage.

Dyke Yaxley’s lead Corporate Finance adviser, Mark Bramall, was supported by colleagues Pam Mason and Sarah Hartshorn, and their key role initially was to identify a select group of potential buyers.

Mr Bramall said: “We then marketed the business through our Corporate Finance Network links and led initial negotiations to broker a deal, while working alongside Aaron & Partners at all times to complete Due Diligence and all the necessary documentation through to the completion of the takeover.

“This was an excellent example of specialists in their fields coming together to complete a transaction that has resulted in Rockford IT being bought by one of the UK’s fastest growing managed IT services and cloud hosting providers.”

Chief Executive of Rockford IT, Tom Sykes, said: “This is an exciting opportunity for Rockford to become part of a team that is providing first class IT managed services, particularly in cloud hosting and the security sector. With a shared vision and support from SysGroup, the Rockford team will be committed to growing with the company and working with some of the world’s biggest organisations.”

Hugh Strickland is a Partner in Aaron & Partners’ Corporate Finance team, and said: “We’re delighted to have been able to play a role in such an important deal both for Tom and the Rockford IT team, and for the business community in Telford as a whole.”

Chief Executive of SysGroup, Chris Evans, said: “Rockford further solidifies our presence in existing markets and also expands the group into new sectors such as hotels and leisure. We look forward to leveraging our newly combined and deeper skills to further our organic growth.”

SysGroup were supported on the acquisition by Kuits Solicitors and Grant Thornton.

Established in 2001, Rockford provides managed hosting services, a 24/7 IT service desk, IT security, connectivity services and disaster recovery solutions to around 200 UK customers including SMEs, councils, education organisations, professional services, and blue chip customers.