TECHNOLOGY : Computer Sciences to Buy TRW Payment Software Unit

Computer Sciences Corp., the third-largest U.S. computer services company, said Wednesday it agreed to buy a TRW Inc. payment-processing software unit to enhance its financial services.

TRW Data Services, an Oakland-based unit of TRW, has annual sales of more than $35 million and such clients as Citibank, Chase Manhattan Bank, JC Penney and banks in Norway and the Netherlands.

Computer Sciences did not disclose the price it will pay for the unit, which employs about 200 people and has offices in Nieuwegein, the Netherlands.

El Segundo-based Computer Sciences, whose financial services group serves Fortune’s Global 500 companies, has benefited from a robust commercial services business. It won a host of contracts in the first quarter, including ones to handle billing services for energy-trading company Enron Corp. and to manage computer and manufacturing systems for United Technologies Corp.’s Pratt & Whitney jet engine unit.

“This acquisition is in line with management’s strategy of completing small but strategic acquisitions,” Andrew Burns, an analyst at PaineWebber Inc., said in a report.

Burns, who has an “attractive” rating on the shares, said he expects the acquisition to add to Computer Sciences’ earnings this year and that its shares should rise to $80 by June.

Computer Sciences will integrate into its own financial services group TRW Data’s customized software for high-volume image character-recognition capabilities, which reduce labor for payment data entry and improve accuracy. Gary Sherne, general manager of TRW Data Services, will continue to lead the unit, formerly TRW Financial Systems.

The transaction is expected to close in the next few weeks.

Computer Sciences’ shares fell $1.31 to close at $67.38. TRW fell 31 cents to $56.13. Both trade on the New York Stock Exchange.