It was announced today that Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI) have taken a 12.1 per cent stake in Datatec Limited. Of this stake 10 per cent was acquired from Primedia Limited and other Datatec shareholders, and a further 2.1 per cent through the issue of shares for cash by Datatec to HCI. The value of the transaction exceeds R170 million at current market prices.

Headline summary :

It was announced today that Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI) have taken a 12.1 per cent stake in Datatec Limited.

Of this stake 10 per cent was acquired from Primedia Limited and other Datatec shareholders, and a further 2.1 per cent through the issue of shares for cash by Datatec to HCI. The value of the transaction exceeds R170 million at current market prices.

JOHANNESBURG 26 August 1997.

It was announced today that Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI) have taken a 12.1 per cent stake in Datatec Limited. Of this stake 10 per cent was acquired from Primedia Limited and other Datatec shareholders, and a further 2.1 per cent through the issue of shares for cash by Datatec to HCI. The value of the transaction exceeds R170 million at current market prices.

The investment in Datatec by HCI represents exciting future opportunities for Datatec given HCI’s influence and broad based black empowerment representation. HCI focuses its investments profile in high quality growth stocks.

The decision to take an ownership stake in Datatec marks HCI’s entry into the IT sector. Two factors make Datatec an attractive investment partner in terms of HCI’s investment criteria. First, even though technology stocks havetypically offered amongst the best equity returns, Datatec’s performance has been particularly impressive. Since its debut on the JSE nearly three years ago, Datatec has offered shareholders a 2 000 per cent return. Moreover, it is expected that Datatec will continue to outperform the sector average. Datatec has focused its activities and operations exclusively around the fastest growing of components in the IT landscape, the Internet.

Second, the ownership stake will allow HCI access to key Internet technology and backbone networks, and will offer important opportunities for skills transfer. In many ways, the Internet has begun to transform fundamentally the way society communicates, transacts, entertains and learns. As Internet access becomes more ubiquitous, so the tempo of change and its impact will become more apparent and widespread. HCI’s investment in Datatec represents an important empowerment initiative because it will broaden and deepen our national capacity to meet the challenges posed by an increasing “wired world”.

Source: Datatec