Manchester tech group makes 14th acquisition
Acquisitive Manchester-based IT group InTec has bought education tech consultancy Sweethaven, racking up nearly £24m in investment from its offshore backer, Duke Royalty.
The city centre and Altrincham-based IT consultancy has received a follow-on investment of £2.8m from its Guernsey registered funder Duke Royalty to fund this latest acquisition as well as for the settlement of deferred consideration in relation to a previous acquisition.
InTec has over 100 staff and is a Microsoft partner, but was primarily set up as an investment holding company created to execute a buy and build strategy of buying “synergistic companies within the I.T. managed services sector in the United Kingdom and Ireland”.
Surrey-based Sweethaven is a managed IT services provider to SMEs serving the education sector.
This deal brings Duke’s total investment into InTec to £23.9 million.
Neil Johnson, CEO of Duke Royalty, said in a statement to the stock market this morning: “The acquisition of Sweethaven marks an exciting step forward for InTec, as it bolsters the company’s existing education-focused offering and expands our scale and credibility within the public education sector. There is a strong cultural fit between InTec and Sweethaven, and we look forward to seeing the positive impact that this new addition will have within the wider group.”
InTec was formed as a buy and build IT business and received investment from Maven Equity Finance through the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund in 2018 which saw the acquisitions of Hale Communications and fuelled a recruitment drive.
In May 2019 they secured £4m in growth capital funding from Boost&Co and in August 2019 acquired Cheshire Business Services followed by Titan Networks in November 2019, iTek Computer Solutions in MArch 2020, and RivaNET in October 2020.
In 2021, Duke invested with a £20 million facility agreement with Duke Royalty, allowing InTec to finance out the existing funders and provide additional capital for future acquisitions.
Other acquisitions include Miller Waite in September 2021, Provident IT and Firefly Enterprises in January 2022, Opal IT in February 2022 and Astec Computing in April 2022 and in February 2023, they acquired Frog IT Services Ltd.
InTec has made 13 acquisitions in total and claims “there are many more on the horizon”.
