Acquisition

Anite Group PLC
18 April 2002

Thursday, 18th April 2002

                                ANITE GROUP PLC

                           ('Anite' or 'the Company')

       Anite makes further public sector acquisition for up to £8,000,000


Introduction

Anite, the European consultancy and services company, today announces that it
has completed the acquisition of the entire share capital of Micro Surveys
Property Systems Limited ('MSPS') for a consideration of up to £8,000,000. MSPS
will be integrated into Anite Public Sector ('APS') and will enable Anite to
provide mobile working applications to the public sector.


Background To And Reasons For The Acquisition

Anite provides a portfolio of services from IT consultancy and applications
software to systems integration and managed services in 11 countries to four
principal markets: telecoms, travel, public sector and finance.

Anite Public Sector is the UK's leading supplier of IT systems and services to
Local Government and a specialist provider of software and consultancy to
Central Government departments and agencies. It continues to build its position
in the UK local authorities' market, with over 70% penetration, based on a range
of applications and an increasing customer base. The business is also well
placed to benefit from the government's initiatives for 'joined-up' local and
central government and e-government, which include budgeted spending, by 2005,
of £2bn on e-government solutions to local authorities. Following its
establishment as a fully integrated and homogenous business during the last
financial year, the business has increased its sales from £7m in the year ending
30th April 1999 to £38m last year, generating operating profits before tax of
£2.2m, with further strong growth in sales, profits and order books achieved in
the six months to 31 October 2001.

Mobile working has been identified by the Department for Transport, Local
Government and the Regions as one of the 'e-enablers' in their strategy for
e-local government, egov@local. The future of the delivery of government
services to the public is expected to become split between automated,
self-service approaches (through call-centres and across the Internet) and those
supported by mobile workers.

The acquisition of MSPS represents a strategic move for Anite to become the
premier provider of mobile working solutions in the public sector. To do this,
Anite will also invest in tight integration of MSPS technologies with its other
solutions especially with Anite's Revenues and Benefits, Housing and Social Care
applications. Doing this will help local authorities and government departments
and agencies to provide a complete mobile working environment for those staff
that serve the public in their homes or at other off-site locations. These
solutions will also form part of Anite's approach for central government,
housing associations and registered social landlords.

MSPS has a number of software products all designed to support out-of-office
working using palm tops, pocket PC's, and pen tablets as well as conventional
lap-top PC's. MSPS solutions support both the remote and central working aspects
of tasks, providing a comprehensive solution to mobile working needs that can be
used in conjunction with Lotus Notes or Microsoft Office/Exchange, allowing the
user to also connect to general office services.

MSPS, based in Kingston upon Thames, employs 28 people. Founded in 1987, MSPS
has a strong recent track record of customer growth. The acquisition is in line
with Anite's stated strategy of building its Public Sector business through
organic growth and selective acquisitions.

Structure

The transaction involves the acquisition of the entire share capital of MSPS
pursuant to a share purchase agreement. The consideration, which is capped at
£8,000,000, comprises the following:

(i)     initial consideration of £1,000,000 to be satisfied as to 40 per cent in 
        cash and 60 per cent by the issue of ordinary shares of 10 pence each in 
        the capital of Anite ('Anite Shares'); and

(ii)    earn-out consideration of up to £7,000,000 ('Earn-Out Consideration') 
        payable in five tranches at six monthly intervals between completion and 
        30 April 2004 to be satisfied as to 60 per cent of each tranche by
        the issue of Anite shares (or bank guaranteed loan notes at Anite's 
        option) and as to 40 per cent of each tranche by the issue by Anite of 
        bank guaranteed loan notes. The amount of each payment to be made in
        respect of the Earn-Out Consideration will be calculated based on the 
        operating profits of MSPS for the preceding financial period after 
        interest and before tax but excluding non-recurring exceptional items.


John Hawkins, Chief Executive of Anite Group, commenting on the acquisition,
said:

'The use of mobile working is growing significantly in the public sector as the
government seeks to improve public services. With the MSPS solutions Anite will
be well positioned to help local and central government get the economic
benefits and the service delivery improvements that mobile working can bring.

'We also plan to take advantage of the MSPS mobile technologies to develop
applications for Anite's other core market sectors, such as Travel and Finance'

                                    - Ends -

For further information please contact:              www.anite.com

Anite Group Plc                                      Tel: [phone]

John Hawkins, Chief Executive
Simon Hunt, Finance Director

Weber Shandwick / Square Mile                        Tel: [phone]

Reg Hoare/Laurence Read


                     This information is provided by RNS
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