Sema Group Plc, the Anglo-French computer services company, is the latest cash-rich European operation to be looking for a major takeover in the US. With 77m pounds added to reserves through the disposal of defense subsidiaries BAeSEMA Ltd and Paradigm Systems Technology Ltd to British Aerospace, the company has no inhibitions about looking for targets worth up to $1bn. We are looking for an acquisition in the United States and we will do it in due course, said Director of communications Marie-Claude Bessis. We are working on this very seriously. Sema reported mid-term net income up 24.1% at 23.1m pounds on revenues 9.1% higher at 610.5m pounds. The company is benefiting from economic recovery in Europe and the fact that it has targeted fast-growing areas such as telecoms. Future prospects are good with a high book-to-bill ratio and the company has just been elevated to the Footsie 100 index. But the market was looking for a better performance and the shares fell back 7% to 601 pence. Sema faces competition to build up its US operations as earlier this week Logica Plc, the London-based IT consultancy, said it was on the look out for more acquisitions and is prepared to spend several hundreds of millions of pounds on boosting its operations in countries such as the US (CI No 3,492).
