Shares in AIM listed business software specialist Portrait Software (LON:PST) soared by 30% to 30p this morning after the company said it had agreed a takeover deal with Pitney Bowes MapInfo UK, the UK arm of US mail processing group Pitney Bowes. The recommended cash offer is priced at 31p per share, valuing Portrait at £44.4m – a premium of 38% over its share price at yesterday’s close.

Pitney Bowes said the acquisition would give it the chance to expand its coverage across key customer relationship management (CRM) technologies and to develop its existing offering. Portrait’s software is focused on how companies manage and interact with their customers so that they can analyse performance and boost profitability. Pitney Bowes said its added scale, capital position and broad geographic footprint across more than 130 countries would give Portrait a significant base to achieve future growth. The deal has already received irrevocable undertakings from all of the Portrait directors and certain other shareholders together representing around 56.52% of the company’s share capital.

Paul Hewitt, Portrait’s non-executive chairman, said: “We believe this to be an excellent offer for all Portrait stakeholders and provides a great opportunity for our people and our customers whilst delivering significantly enhanced value to our shareholders. Further it is recognition of the progress we have made within the business which has resulted in a significant increase in revenues and profits, market penetration, and high profile industry recognition, even during an extremely tough economic environment. Pitney Bowes' global reach will enable the Portrait business to accelerate its growth and to go on to greater success.”

Today’s takeover news came as Portrait unveiled a 10% rise in revenues to £15.9m in the year to March, with profit after tax coming in at £1.3m against a loss last year of £3.2m. The company said its efforts to strengthen its sales and marketing activities had been successful and that it had seen regional growth in Europe and the Americas.

Luke McKeever, Portrait’s chief executive, said: “We are very pleased with the company's performance this last year during which time we have extended our product offering, improved our sales and marketing, and delivered profitable growth. Furthermore, we have achieved this during a period of market turbulence which bodes well for the future as economic conditions improve in the longer term. Trading…

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