SOFTWARE firm Torex Retail, which employs more than a hundred staff in Oxfordshire, has been sold to US private equity buyer Cerberus for £204.4m.

The sale is expected to secure the future of Torex, which is under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office, but no assurances were given on jobs at its Witney headquarters or Banbury offices.

Torex currently employs about 2,500 worldwide. Shareholders and unsecured creditors will get nothing after the holding company called in KPMG as administrators.

Asked whether redundancies were planned, Vickey Wallis, head of marketing, said: "It is too early to comment at this point."

She added. "Pension schemes will remain in place and will not be affected by the transaction."

Torex's shares were suspended at the beginning of the year following a profits warning made just a week after the firm boasted of "significant" new business wins.

Oxfordshire-based Torex, which makes software for tills and checkouts used by retailers such as Tesco and Woolworths, was previously part of NHS software provider iSoft until it demerged from the group in 2004.

Steve Marshall, the chairman of the Torex holding company, said the sale of the business was the "only viable option" to the board in a "uniquely challenging situation".

He added: "It was achieved despite breathtaking corporate governance and financial issues at PLC level, the scale and extent to which neither I nor my board colleagues have seen in corporate life."

The investigation was sparked by chief executive Neil Mitchell, who lives in Oxford. He was suspended from his job in February, the day after the SFO raided Mr Moore's home in Hook Norton and the homes of two other former company executives.

Mr Mitchell is now suing the company for unfair dismissal.

In March, the company appointed investment bank Jefferies International to oversee a sale of the business, but the firm's worsening financial plight and debts of more than £200m deterred three of the original seven potential buyers from making a bid.

The crisis was sparked by Torex's warning in January that delayed contracts had affected revenues and increased borrowings by some £23m more than the £180m expected.

The warning came a week after the firm had detailed contract wins worth more than £100m over the second half of the year, with clients including Wyevale Garden Centres and Argos owner Home Retail Group.