Parity Plc said at the halfway stage in August that it was looking to buy, and it has duly snapped up three privately-owned companies to expand its operations in Europe (CI No 2,734). The total consideration for all three companies is ú3.5m, comprising ú2.25m in cash, with ú250,000 deferred for a year, ú750,000 in loan notes and the rest made up of 216,456 Parity shares. Managing director Paul Davies said the companies had overlapping ownership and it was not possible to break the costs down accurately for each of the three companies. Parity’s agency business, CSS Trident, which supplies temporary computing staff, has acquired Software 92 Plc, which supplies staff across continental Europe and has offices in Bristol and Birmingham. Meanwhile Parity Solutions, which comprises consultancy, training and software development, has acquired Eurosoft Solutions GmbH and Eurosoft Solutions Sarl, with offices in Frankfurt, Munich and Paris. These add France and Germany to Parity’s offices in the Netherlands and Switzerland. In the year to March 31, Software 92 turned in pre-tax profits of ú400,000, from turnover of ú10.1m and had net assets of ú700,000. Eurosoft Solutions GmbH made ú35,000 pre-tax profits in the year to December 31 from ú1.4m turnover and had net assets of ú41,000. The French operation only commenced trading at the start of this year. Parity’s group managing director Paul Davies said he was keen to test the company’s business model in continental Europe.
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