A technology company set up over 20 years ago in Ireland has been sold for £25.5 million (€37.24 million).
Xpert Group Ltd was sold to UK national communications services provider, Redstone plc.
Xpert Group was founded by Aidan Farrell in 1984 and was orginally called Reflex. It was reformed in its current state in 1994. It expanded into the UK and acquired a number of companies including Castletron and Gandalf, and more recently Genesis.
A £12 million MBO was underwritten by Lloyds Development Capital in 2001, and the company's headquarters was moved to London. Xpert now has nine offices in the UK and Ireland and employs 200, including 100 technical support consultants.
It provides converged Internet Protocol solutions to organisations in the healthcare, education, local government, retail and finance sectors.
Redstone is quoted on the London FTSE. It employs 290 people and has seen a significant rise in orders recently of appoximately 40 per cent, year on year.
In April 2004 Xpert reported revenues of £27.4 million. Xpert Technology, the Irish arm of the group, recently announced growth figures in its operation of 30 per cent in revenues and more than 360 per cent in pretax profit, when compared with the previous calendar year.
