Project management specialist, Cheltonian International, is to receive equity funding from 3i in return for a 20% shareholding in the Twickenham-based company. Cheltonian says that the additional funding will enable it to accelerate development of its Panorama project management system, in addition to expanding UK and international operations. The new financing comes only 14 months after Cheltonian was acquired by SQL Systems International Group (CI No 1,493), a merger that didn’t work particularly well and Cheltonian subsequently decided to go its own way via a management buyout in June. At the time of SQL’s investment, Cheltonian was making UKP500,000 in pre-tax profits, but wedlock and divorce have taken their toll, and the company now hopes to break even on UKP1.7m this year. Nonetheless, Cheltonian anticipates profits of UKP400m and UKP600m over the next two years, and expects its turnover to rise to the sum of UKP2.7m and UKP4m respectively.
