FIFTY JOBS are under threat at a Derry call centre following a decision by its Northern Ireland owners to sell the business to a venture capital firm.

Anderson Manning Associates has confirmed that it has sold its entire business to Forest Leaf Properties.

In a statement, the directors of the company said it had sold the business to "local investors with a proven track record".

However, some Anderson Manning staff fear that the venture capital firm will not continue to operate the business as it is.

Anderson Manning, set up by Stuart Anderson and Julie Manning in 1993, was one of the North's first locally-owned contact centres.

The company began as a telesales operation with five employees. However, over the past 15 years it has grown to employ more than 200 people in the North.

It operated two call centres - one in Derry, where about 50 people are employed, the other in Bangor with 150 people.

Last month, Anderson Manning's largest client, British company TV Network, went out of business. It owed the Northern Ireland company more than £500,000.

The directors of Anderson Manning said that following these difficulties the company had experienced a "tightening" of credit facilities. "Although the future of the business has now been secured, the company has lost a significant proportion of its turnover and it cannot rule out the possibility of some redundancies," they added.

There has been no comment from Forest Leaf Properties about its future intentions for the Bangor and Derry call centres.

However, directors at Anderson Manning Associates have said there will be an update on "future employment intentions in the coming days".