Software boss nets £70m in sell-off

COMPUTER programmer Tony Bickford is in line for an estimated £70m windfall after selling the company he founded 14 years ago in Clapham, south London.

GUS is buying software firm QAS for £106m. QAS designs programs that help companies organise their databases.

Chairman Bickford owns around 70% of the shares. His business partner and chief executive Simon Worth holds about 27%, so is in line for a payout of around £29m.

Bickford wrote the code for the initial software in 1990. QAS now employs 375 staff and has offices in Europe, North America and Asia.

Last year it made £6m profits on sales of £43.2m. GUS will put QAS into its Experian credit checking division, which is tipped to be spun off from the group.

Peter Lawrence, chairman of animal products group Lawrence, raised £2.2m by placing 595,794 shares at 375p to satisfy institutional demand. He still owns 34% of the group.