Underlining that while it is no longer interested in the microcomputer retailing business, it is still fully committed to third party computer maintenance, Granada Group Plc yesterday launched an agreed share exchange offer for the gran’daddy of the UK maintenance business, DPCE Holdings Plc, which was hit by management problems last year. DPCE is recommending a share exchange offer of 30 new Granada ordinary and 173 new preference shares for every 100 DPCE held, valuing the latter at UKP110.2m, or 328 pence a share, against a price in the market ahead of the bid of 170 pence. DPCE shares leaped 142p to 312p on the announcement and Granada dipped two to 327 pence. DPCE reported pre-tax profits of UKP5.4m on turnover of UKP40m in the year to June 1987, and profits this year are expected to be about flat. The core of Granada’s maintenance business is Computer Field Maintenance, bought from STC Plc, and with its own micro maintenance business and one or two smaller acquisitions it has made, DPCE will give it mainframe-to-micro maintenance capability, making it a giant in the business to stand alongside the two big US players, TRW Corp and Bell Atlantic’s Sorbus Inc subsidiary.
