Canada's CGI to buy Scisys in ?78.9m deal

(Sharecast News) - Scisys shares surged on Friday after Canadian IT services company CGI offered to buy the London-listed computer software services group for 254.15p a share in cash.The offer, which values Scisys at around £78.9m, has been unanimously recommended by the company's board of directors. The price represents a premium of about 24.6% to Scisys' closing price on Thursday.Scisys investors will also be entitled to a 2018 final dividend of 1.73p a share, which will be paid on 26 July.Scisys chairman Mike Love said: "We believe Scisys and CGI are highly complementary businesses sharing similar values and are confident that the combination will enable Scisys to benefit from CGI's size, strength and global reach."CGI's president and chief executive officer George Schindler said: "CGI's offer to merge its operations with those of Scisys is aligned to our Build and Buy strategy, providing opportunities to expand our industry depth in space, defence, government and media in the UK and Germany."Scisys' industry-leading expertise and IP-based services and solutions will provide an opportunity to globalise certain platforms utilising the broader CGI geographic footprint and client relationships."At 1340 BST, Scisys shares were up 23% at 250.02p.