CFM Group Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of ICL Plc, and the troubled Sherwood Computer Services Plc have established a joint venture company, as Sherwood also announces its acquisition of Beta Computers (Europe) Ltd. Sherwood is moving its facilities management services and application management services in the life, pensions and insurance markets to the new company. London-based Sherwood made interim losses of ú88,000 in the half year to June 30 last year. The last time Sherwood got into a joint venture with ICL, Guardian Computer Services Ltd, it ended up selling its stake cheaply to ICL. Sherwood-CFM Ltd, as the new company will be known, will be based in Tower Hill. Meanwhile, Sherwood is closing its centre in Romford, Essex and one of its two offices in Gloucester, and will use CFM’s facilites for the majority of its business. This is all part of the company’s attempt at a drastical reduction in its overheads, and it will take a restructuring hit of around ú1m for this in its 1994 accou nts that are due shortly. Sherwood is also paying ú875,000 for the Glasgow-based Beta Computers by the issue of 875,000 new Sherwood shares. Beta, which is Sherwood’s partner in the Sherwood International Ltd joint venture, is a software development company that recorded pre-tax losses of ú83,424 for the year ending June last year, from turnover of ú977,829. The joint venture between the two is expected to record a loss for the year ending December 1994. The shareholders of Beta, including Graham Twaddle, who is joining the board of Sherwood as group technical director, are limited to selling no more than 5% of the Sherwood shares they receive for the following two years.
