Transformation

The Group is open to new partnerships that will increase shareholder value as well as plough back skills and resources into the South African community and into the local communities around the world in which the group companies operate. 

All the South African operations have committed themselves to a transformation process designed to minimise barriers to employment equity.  Significant progress has been made to achieving the employment equity plan goals.  Since most of our business interests exist outside SA, employment equity plans are established on an individual entity basis.

New BEE force in SA IT industry

On the 11th of July 2006 Datatec announced that its South African operations will merge with African Legend Technologies to form an R800 million-a-year IT company. The Datatec businesses should contribute R500 million to the combined entities’ revenue while the African Legend businesses are estimated to contribute R300 million.

Datatec will have a 55% shareholding and African Legend Technologies will hold the remaining 45% in the newly merged entity to be known as African Legend Indigo.

African Legend Indigo will include Datatec’s RangeGate and the two African Legend Technologies businesses, African Legend Indigo Pty (Ltd) and African Legend Solutions Pty (Ltd).

Westcon AME, Datatec’s networking equipment distributor will continue to operate as a stand alone business. However African Legend Technologies will take a 45% shareholding in Westcon AME.

The comparable size and nature of the merged operations is such that no vendor finance will be required to facilitate the deal. The proposed merger is subject to competition commission approval.

African Legend Indigo will be led by Chief Executive Officer Michael Jacobus, who has led African Legend Indigo Pty (Ltd) for the past 3 years. Key African Legend and Datatec executives will take positions on the new board.

According to Jens Montanana, CEO of Datatec, the merger will create a truly black empowered ICT company.

“We are excited about this deal on a number of levels. The merger will create an IT company that is 45% black owned, which is significantly more than the ICT Charter calls for, and we expect it to add significant shareholder value by providing us with the critical mass we need to take the new business to the next level and to consistently achieve the sort of growth recorded by Datatec’s other operations in the US, the UK and Europe over the past 12 to 18 months.”

According to Mashudu Tshivhase, Chairman of African Legend Indigo and African Legend Technologies, the fit between the African Legend companies and RangeGate is excellent. “Culturally there are great synergies,” he says. “And there is a limited overlap in our client base which presents great opportunity for cross selling our services across the business. Through the merger we will build a strong organization that will be in a position to make a positive contribution to bridging the digital divide throughout the whole African continent. ”

For more information on African Legend Indigo, please visit: http://www.alindigo.com/

For more information on African Legend Technologies, please visit: http://www.africanlegend.co.za/