Keystone duo in top positions

By ADAM GIFFORD

The founders of legal-practice software company Keystone, Graeme Frost and Kaye Sycamore, are to take up senior positions in Australian-listed software company Solution 6.

Solution 6 announced last week that its £13.5 million ($43.5 million) offer for Keystone had gone unconditional after receiving acceptances for more than 90 per cent of its shares.

It will move to buy the remaining shares and delist Keystone from the London Stock Exchange by June 21.

Frost, who was Keystone's London-based chief executive, will become managing director of Solution 6 for Asia Pacific.

Sycamore, its Australia and New Zealand managing director, becomes president of global solutions, responsible for product and market strategy across the Solution 6 Group.

Solution 6 chief executive Neil Gamble, whose main task so far has been to clean up after an at-times indiscriminate buying spree by his predecessor, Chris Tyler, said the Keystone acquisition "reinforces our position as the largest specialist professional services solutions company worldwide".

Solution 6 also acquires the £3 million ($9.6 million) in cash Keystone raised late last year.

Keystone's share price fell when a couple of major deals did not come in before the half-year result, causing market jitters.

Keystone was formed in Auckland in 1991, and listed in London in 1997. Sycamore said that it maintained its New Zealand character, despite being governed by the rules of the London exchange.

"Of our 150 staff worldwide, the bulk are Kiwi, even in our London and US offices."

She said development would remain in Auckland, where the company has 60 staff and plans to take on more this year. It will combine some organisational resources with another Auckland Solution 6 subsidiary, exo-net.