A PONTYPOOL software house has been the subject of a 500,000 management buy out (MBO).

FM Workshop's new team is being led by managing director Steve Richards.

He wants to increase FM's current 400,000 turnover to 1million in three years.

He said: "Our systems are in use with organisations such as Royal Bank of Scot-land, HBOS, Merrill Lynch, Heinz and Kellogs, and have also proved their worth in hospitals, airports, local government and the Millennium Dome."

"They give instant information to enable managers to react. And people simply cannot enter unreliable data as they could in the past with paper-based systems."

FM's systems include biometrics such as entry/exit system based on thumb-prints.

As hospitals strive to fight the MRSA superbug, another FM system allows managers to check that all hygiene and cleaning is up to the required standard.

UK Steel Enterprise Fund Managers, a subsidiary of UK Steel Enterprise, has supported the MBO with a 175,000 loan and equity package.

This has been arranged through the Finance Wales mezzanine fund, which is handled by UKSE Fund Managers.

Another 35,000 has come in a loan and equity package from UK Steel Enterprise itself.

The new management team has contributed 70,000 and the balance of the funding is a deferred consideration of 220,000 from future company earnings.

UKSE's Russell Grant said: "The company has proved it has the technical expertise and organisational skill to deliver service to some of the UK's most demanding clients.