Softline buys Netcash

In a deal that has exciting possibilities for SMME's in South Africa, Softline - the provider of South Africa's most popular accounting software - Pastel, has announced that they have acquired Netcash.  Charles Pittaway, Director of Netcash issued a statement as follows:

I am proud to announce that Netcash has been acquired by Softline, part of the Sage Group plc, and one of South Africa's leading providers of accounting, payroll, CRM and ERP business management software. In a deal to be announced globally at 07h00 GMT today, Netcash will now be 100% owned by Softline.

While this will not affect your relationship with Netcash in any way, we felt that it was important to keep you informed about our business and its exciting plans. The potential synergies between Netcash and Softline are readily apparent: both businesses predominantly serve SMEs, and the addition of Netcash's transaction services to Softline's family of products, such as Pastel Accounting, Pastel Payroll, VIP Payroll, Accpac and Sage ERP X3, will afford existing and future Softline customers a unique breadth of service offering, under a single banner.

The acquisition will assist Netcash in fulfilling our vision to provide a unrivalled business solution to SMEs, which enables them to transact in EFTs, debit order and credit card transactions directly within their back-office accounting and payroll applications.

Your Netcash team remains committed to providing you with the simple, cost-effective and efficient services you are accustomed to receiving.  We are excited about our growth prospects as part of Sage and Softline, and how we can work with the local divisions of Softline to develop leading edge transactional services to assist you in your business.

I encourage you to contact me if you have any questions.  For more information about Softline you can visit www.softline.co.za and for more information on Sage, you can visit www.sage.com.

Good news travels fast, so watch out for media coverage tomorrow on this exciting move for a South African company. Thank you once again for your ongoing support.