Following the double sale of Capsco Software and Insurance Software & Systems Ltd to Paxus Corp Pty Ltd (CI No 1,595), Swiss Reinsurance Group has disposed of its 51% holding in PCL Computer Services Group Ltd. PCL was established by the P&O group in 1976 and was subject to management buyout in 1984. Swiss Re purchased its stake in 1988, and the company has been profitable since then, reporting trading profits of UKP789,000 on a turnover of UKP8.3m for 1990. The company provides a range of services, including facilities management, software development, packaged software and consultancy. Swiss Re says it has changed its strategic direction and that the divestitures are part of move to withdraw from the information technology marketplace. PCL won’t disclose the cost of acquiring Swiss Re’s shareholding, but says that the share capital of the company has been restructured from UKP125,000 to UKP190,000. PCL’s three main strands of business are IBM and plug compatible mainframe services – including facilities management, bureau services and a hot disaster recovery site at Rickmansworth; PCL Business Software specialises in turnkey systems for the property markets, and the third division specialises in consultancy services.
