Telecoms giant BT has announced its second foray into the legal services world with the £64m acquisition of a specialist supplier of law firm software. BT Retail announced this morning that it has agreed to pay £64.2m in cash for Tikit Group, which supplies financial and practice management systems to more than 1,300 firms.

The company announced the 416p per share offer for AIM-listed Tikit to the stock exchange this morning.

The takeover comes as BT Claims awaits approval for an alternative business structure licence from the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Established in 1994, Tikit says that its client list includes more than 90 of the UK’s top 100 law firms, 300 US law firms and 18 of the UK’s top 50 accountancy firms. Its website includes testimonials from DLA Piper, Norton Rose and SJ Berwin.

In the first six months of 2012, Tikit reported a pre-tax profit of £1.7m on a turnover of £13.4m.

Gavin Patterson, chief executive of BT Retail, said: ‘Tikit represents a highly complementary fit with BT Retail’s existing IT strategy and strengthens our position in the provision of ICT services to legal firms in the UK.

‘The offer will enable us to combine Tikit’s expertise, portfolio, relationships and deep understanding of the legal sector with BT Retail’s scale and breadth of products.’

The offer is subject to the agreement of shareholders. The acquisition is likely to be effective by 18 January.