Beleaguered education IT supplier RM has carved off another piece of international operations with Civica coughing £900,000 for its biz down under.

LSE-listed RM is axing one in five jobs from its local workforce as it restructures divisions in response to budgets cuts in the schools market, and is flogging or shuttering non-core or under-performing units.

The sale of US arm Computrac to Troxell Communications for £3m last month has gone through and now RM Asia Pacific – which the firm said sells into the education sector in Australia and New Zealand – is also set to exit the group.

The Oz and Kiwi units made £400,000 profit before tax in the year to 30 September 2010, but RM said: "It is expected that the business being sold will be loss-making during the period from 1 October 2010 to completion".

Public sector specialist Civica has agreed to continue distributing RM's school management software, interactive management programmes and Learning Platform apps to customers in the two countries.

Schools in Hong Kong, Malaysia, China and other parts of Asia Pacific will be directly managed by RM HQ in the UK. ®