Anite’s shareholders gave a collective sigh of relief after the software group finally secured the sale of its public sector business.

For some time it has been one of sector’s biggest open secrets that the Slough-based group was looking to sell the unit, which supplies software to local authorities. After attracting a lot of attention from acquisitive rivals, step forward Northgate Information Solutions, the public sector IT specialist taken private only four months ago by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the private equity firm.

After weeks of negotiations, Northgate will pay £54.3 million for the business, higher than some had expected. It could provide the tonic to lift Anite out of the doldrums. The company, which will make a profit of about £28 million on the disposal, will turn its attention to its main wireless testing operations, which sells software to mobile handset makers, and its travel business, which sells reservation systems. Analysts reflected that the long wait was now over, with the sale showing that management was paying more than lip service to shareholder value, hoping now for the sale of its travel division. Anite shares closed flat at 34¾p, after being up for most of the session.

Cains Beer, the Liverpool brewery rescued from collapse six years ago by two brothers, was forced to suspend its shares after it failed to reach an agreement on the renewal of its banking facilities. The AIM-listed company, which owns approximately 100 pubs, told investors at the start of the week that it was in negotiations with HM Revenue & Customs over unpaid duty and other liabilities and with its bankers over its financial covenants.

Empyrean Energy rose 4p to 33½p on the back of encouraging gas shows at its Sugarloaf Block A4 well.

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