Joint Venture

Comino Group PLC 3 May 2000 COMINO GROUP PLC : ACQUISITION IN JOINT VENTURE £1m Invested in formation of Comino Montal Ltd. extends Comino customer base Comino Group plc ('Comino'), a leading provider of software solutions for the housing, occupational pensions and local government sectors, announces that it has established a joint venture with the Directors of Montal Computer Group Limited ('Montal') to provide Applications Software Provision ('ASP') to its growing user base. Comino has invested £1m for its half share in the new company. The joint venture, to be called Comino Montal, takes in an existing profitable operation and will extend Comino's customer base - particularly into smaller Housing Associations. It will provide ASP, Internet Service Provision ('ISP'), and remote network management initially to approximately 80 existing customers, 30 of whom are in housing. Already a contract has been awarded for the first ASP product which will make Comino's Housing Management software available to smaller Housing Associations who cannot justify an independent system. There are over 1000 housing operations in this category, in addition to the 200 plus Housing Associations already serviced by Comino. The joint venture is part of Comino's intention to provide infrastructure to its existing customer base and will provide the essential networking facilities for homeworking and remote access to customer systems. Comino Montal will now seek an agreement with a major telecommunications provider to give customers 'distance independent pricing' for connection to the network and the services it provides. Commenting, Garth Selvey, Chief Executive of Comino Group said: 'We chose Montal because they are an established and respected service provider. Montal's engineering and networking services together with Comino's software, will allow us to provide effective ASP support direct to the customer's desktop. Montal Computer Group is a privately-owned company based in Dorking with a turnover of approximately £7m. The Group principally provides hardware maintenance and network services. For further information contact: Garth Selvey, Chief Executive, Comino Group plc 01628 525 433

Companies

CMO Group (CMO)
UK 100

Latest directors dealings