There is nothing like a recession to concentrate a chairman’s mind on the direction of his business – Robert Evans, chairman of London-based Systems Reliability Plc has just reported pre-tax profit down 4% to UKP7.5m at year end and has announced that the Communications and Maintenance divisions are to go in UKP12m management buyout (CI No 1,677), leaving the group to focus on mainframe services under the name Enterprise Computer Holdings Plc. Over the year the group had been restructured into four divisions: mainframe services, communications, maintenance and personal computers. The vast bulk of its revenue – UKP100m came from mainframe services, which has grown at an annual compound rate in excess of 25% over the last five years. Enterprise will also retain its personal computer division managed through a separate subsidiary to be known as Systems International. This is largely composed of South East Computers following the sale of Corporate Computers in September for UKP9m. Meanwhile, the Systems Reliability buyout, which includes Systems Reliability Computer Services and the Unix reseller Optim, is jointly owned by management with a 20% stake, the parent company Enterprise Computer with a 25% holding, while international investment management group Murray Johnstone owns the rest.
