It's been a busy year for the M & A specialists, not least in the IT sector. First a portion of Syscap was hived-off to private investors Anacap several months ago, and now Wyse leasing, another IT leasing specialist, has been restructured and one of its arms, Wyse Leasing (north) Limited, in recent weeks has been bought off other investors.

The sale took place just after the completion in October of the restructuring. This involved the merging of Wyse’s four separate trading entities (Wyse Leasing South East, Wyse Leasing Midlands, Wyse Leasing Plc, and Lease suppor desk), each with their own P&L, into a single entity called Wyse Leasing Holdings. This will contain the consolidated accounts of the group, and next year it is understood these will appear in Companies House records.

The process of bringing the business under one roof began last year when it bought new offices in Daventry, Nothamptonshire, which serve as its headquarters. Unifying the business has been important for several reasons. Primarily, entities which fund Wyse can now deal with just one centre while previously it dealt with five (including the recently sold Wyse Leasing (north)). Also, customers have single source of supply to the market, and costs have been reduced by not duplicating back-offices across several P&L centres.

To strengthen managenent capability Stephen Bassett, the former COO of Broadcastle, has been appointed chief executive officer of Wyse Leasing Holdings, and Mike Fairey, the ex sales director of Danka, has been appointed Wyse’s new head of sales. Former employees with places on the board are Wayne Fowkes, the new head of portfolio, Richard Hirst, business development director, Peter Millard, operations director, and Neil Lamond, commercial director.

Like Syscap, Wyse brought in some top tax and legal dogs to help with the way forward. It seems an exciting one. While still financing its traditional customers in the education and SME sectors, it has shifted some of its focus more towards ‘paper’ professions such as law firms and accountancy firms, as well as non-paper ones, including vets. Also, it is doing more leasing of communication equipment with an IT background (such as telephone systems run by computers and vice versa), and it is now leasing industrial plant and machinery.

Streamlining the business has meant that it better placed to strengthen its brokerage function – particularly at a time when brokers in the UK are gaining in importance. Also, the focus on new sectors means that it is less reliant on public sector business which in general has been declining, not least because of the demise of the Home Computer Initiative scheme. Like Syscap, when the need for change has arisen, Wyse appears to have seized the bull by the horns.