Panoramic Growth Equity (“Panoramic”), the leading equity investor in fast-growing, entrepreneurial companies, today announced that it has backed Belfast-headquartered IT managed service provider (MSP) CMI in its acquisition of London-based IT specialist BTA Limited. This marks Panoramic’s first investment into Northern Ireland and the twelfth investment from its second fund.

CMI creates IT strategies, manages IT systems and supports the IT departments of over 500 organisations across the UK’s private and third sectors. Considered one of the UK’s leading IT MSPs, CMI has made several acquisitions in recent years and continues this strategy with the purchase of London-based BTA. The acquisition takes CMI to a turnover in excess of £11m with 100 staff, based in three sites across the UK – Belfast, London and Maidenhead. The increased scale allows CMI to gain wider access to the UK market and further cements its commitment to the IT sector and businesses it serves.

The acquisition of BTA comes on the back of CMI being recognised as one of the “most elite, innovative and strategic IT service providers globally” by the Channel Futures MSP 501 programme.

Ken Roulston, Managing Director of CMI, spoke about the significance of the move:

“The acquisition of BTA will create an even stronger IT service provider of significant scale and we are very excited by its prospects. We looked at a range of funding options and felt that Panoramic would be the best fit operationally, culturally and in transaction structure at this stage of our business’s development. We look forward to working with Panoramic as CMI continues to grow”.

David Wilson, partner at Panoramic, commented:

“We are delighted to support Ken and his team in CMI’s acquisition of BTA. BTA adds significant scale to CMI’s existing business, along with access to the London market through a well-established and successful brand in BTA. This investment marks our first into Northern Ireland, and we will now put our focus into helping Ken and his team deliver their growth targets, including potentially making further acquisitions. Ken and his team have the opportunity to capitalise on the UK’s rapidly consolidating IT services sector.”

Panoramic’s investment into CMI was led by Partner David Wilson and supported by Senior Investment Manager David Atkinson. Panoramic were advised by Murray Jack and Cristin Craig of lawyers Addleshaw Goddard (Glasgow). Consilium Chartered Accountants provided Financial Due Diligence (David Holt). Management were supported by corporate finance advisor Richard Moorehead at HNH and Sarah Burrows at Edwards & Co Solicitors (Belfast).