Specialist IT group SCISYS, which has a base in Brislington, looks set to be taken over by Canadian tech giant CGI in an approved offer that values it at nearly £79m.
The surprise cash offer, which has been unanimously accepted by the Chippenham-headquartered group’s directors, was revealed to shareholders this morning in announcement on the London Stock Exchange. 
At 254.15p, it represents a 24.6% premium on SCISYS’ closing price share price last night. The firm said it was also a 43.7% premium to SCISYS’ average closing price over the past six months. SCISYS shares soared by 22.5% this morning to stand at lunchtime at 250p.
SCISYS was launched in 1980 as Science Systems, working primarily in the space sector with clients such as the European Space Agency.
It has since grown organically and through a string of strategic acquisitions and now supplies bespoke software systems and support services to blue-chip clients in the media & broadcast, government, defence and commerce sectors.
The group employs around 650 staff across its four UK and four German offices. Its blue-chip customers also include the Environment Agency, the Ministry of Defence, Airbus Defence & Space, the BBC and the National Trust.
In March it reported annual pre-tax profits of just under £2m on revenues of £54.4m and a record order book of £98.6m against £88.2m in 2017.
Last year it moved its parent company from the UK to Ireland to protect its EU-funded work.
Today SCISYS chairman Mike Love, who has been at the firm since 1981, said: “The board of SCISYS is unanimously recommending this deal to shareholders, viewing it as a wholesale endorsement of the success SCISYS has achieved to date.
“We believe SCISYS and CGI are highly complementary businesses sharing similar values and are confident that the combination will enable SCISYS to benefit from CGI’s size, strength and global reach.”
CGI president and CEO George Schindler added: “CGI’s offer to merge its operations with those of SCISYS is aligned to our build-and-buy strategy, providing opportunities to expand our industry depth in space, defence, government and media in the UK and Germany.
“SCISYS’ industry-leading expertise and IP-based services and solutions will provide an opportunity to globalise certain platforms utilizing the broader CGI geographic footprint and client relationships.”
Montreal-headquartered CGI was founded in 1976 and today is a leading IT and business consulting services firm with more than 77,000 employees across the world. Most City analysts are expecting the offer to be accepted by SCISYS shareholders without a rival bidder emerging.
