The plans of World Software Group BV of The Hague to engineer alliances between software companies on either side of the Atlantic seems to have fallen apart, and it has sold the 5% holding in Sema Group Plc it inherited from Volmac Groep BV to Schneider SA of Paris. Schneider already held 2.68% of Sema and now has 7.68%. The jump in the Sema share price on hopes that the sale left the company more vulnerable to a bid was born of ignorance – stressing that its holding was a friendly investment, Schneider managing director Didier Pineau-Valencienne told Agence France Presse that left Schneider better prositioned to defend Sema in the event of a hostile bid – another 39.7% is in the friendly hands of Banque Paribas SA. Paribas is also a friendly investor in Schneider, holding 7% of its parent company, Societe Parisienne d’Enterprises et de Participations SA. Schneider’s Telemecanique and Merlin Gerin subsidiaries are already longstanding customers of Sema, and Schneider wants to extend and strengthen the relationships. It paid the equivalent of about $30m – UKP17.5m – for the stake. The sale seems to leave Sema immune from a hostile bid from Cap-Gemini-Sogeti SA, which has 22.3%, because the British Coal Board Pension Fund with 6.8% and Credit Agricole, 4.7%, are seen as friendly investors. At the last count, World Software Group had 19% of Volmac – it was founded by Volmac people, 10.94% of Computer Task Group – where IBM has 15.9%, 5% of Worldwide Computer Services Inc (CI No 1,186).
