Capita buys Trustmarque for £57m

Trustmarque has been a partner of Capita's for a number of years, and was recently bought by Liberata Group

Capita has bought software reseller and services firm Trustmarque for £57m.

Liberata Group bought Trustmarque in 2014, but after less than two years, Capita has swooped in to buy the firm. The intention is to integrate Trustmarque with Capita's own technology reseller and service integration business.

Trustmarque has over 1,450 private and public sector clients, including many within the NHS - just last year Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Foundation NHS Trust signed a five-year seven-figure deal with Trustmarque to implement the Allscripts Sunrise electronic medical record solution. It also has key relationships in the accounting and legal services space, and is a major reseller of Microsoft into the public sector, with over £100m of licences sold annually.

The firm, which employs 620 people across offices in York, Coventry, Sheffield, Edinburgh and London, had net revenues of £107m for the year, with an underlying profit of £4.3m. Capita expects Trustmarque to achieve a post-tax return on investment of 15 per cent in 2018.

Trustmarque has been Capita's "embedded software fulfilment" partner, and TechMarketView's John O'Brien believes that the purchase makes strategic sense.

"The acquisition fits neatly with Capita's tried and trusted strategy to acquire partners who they know well," he said.

He believes that Capita could reap the rewards of Trustmarque's focus for the past two years on steadying the business and returning it to financial health.

Capita chief executive Andy Parker said that the acquisition provided Capita with a set of capabilities and expertise that complement its existing business.

"Trustmarque's ‘enterprise-as-a-service' model will provide a number of opportunities to build new services and deepen our existing relationships with key partners, in particular with Microsoft," he said.

Trustmarque's chief executive, Scott Haddow, said: "We are now well positioned for strong organic growth, supported by Capita's impressive expertise, experience and scale. There are a number of opportunities for integration - including our success selling services through G-Cloud - that will help us to lower costs and cross sell services to customers.

"Capita's long history with Trustmarque means that the two businesses understand each other well, and we look forward to working closely with new colleagues to deliver the best possible services and solutions."