{"id":548443,"date":"2006-04-05T08:30:10","date_gmt":"2006-04-05T08:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/548443-telkom-and-bcx-get-serious.html"},"modified":"2006-04-05T08:30:10","modified_gmt":"2006-04-05T08:30:10","slug":"telkom-and-bcx-get-serious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/548443-telkom-and-bcx-get-serious.html","title":{"rendered":"Telkom and BCX get serious"},"content":{"rendered":"

Telkom first announced it would offer BCX shareholders R9 in cash per share, together with a 25c a share dividend, on March 22. When Telkom first knocked on the BCX board\u2019s door last year, it was turned away with the board saying the offer was too cheap.<\/p>\n

The R9,25 offer was \u201chigher than the all-time high share price of R8,95 prior to the announcement of the potential offer\u201d, says Telkom. BCX shares closed 2,5% higher yesterday at R8,74 apiece. <\/p>\n

Telkom said it had approached \u201cfive key shareholders of BCX holding in excess of 50% of the entire share capital of BCX\u201d, and that it had received \u201ca combination of written and in-principle support from these shareholders to proceed with the potential offer.\u201d<\/p>\n

BCX\u2019s 25% black economic empowerment shareholder Gadlex has signed a heads of agreement with Telkom \u201cregulating its future participation in BCX\u201d, the companies said. <\/p>\n

According to BCX\u2019s 2004 annual report, shareholders holding 3% or more are: the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) with 11,32%, Persetel Q Data Africa Holdings with 11,24, the Comparex Holdings Share Purchase Trust with 7,54%, Investec (6,81%), Sanlam (4,17%) and Investment Solutions (4,11%). <\/p>\n

Telkom needs 75% of BCX shareholders to vote in favour of the deal if it is to go through. <\/p>\n

Globally, fixed-line operators are ex-growth and as such, they are looking for additional revenue streams and ways of getting closer to their clients. <\/p>\n

Telkom says the transaction is in line with its ongoing data strategy\u2026. And will \u201cenhance [its] ability to offer its customers end-to-end solutions across the ICT [information, communication and technology] value chain.\u201d <\/p>\n

The fixed line operator says that if the offer is successful, \u201cBCX will continue to operate as a standalone or separate business unit within Telkom. BCX will retain and expand its service offering and always service its clients with ongoing commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to IT research firm BMI-TechKnowledge, BCX is the biggest player in the South African outsourcing market, with about a third of the market under its belt. Its clients include Sasol, BHP Billiton, Nampak, Sappi and Santam. <\/p>\n

The merged entity would be a formidable player in the ICT space; the offer has yet to be approved by competition authorities, and a number of organisations such as the Internet Service Providers Association (Ispa) and the Communication Users Association of SA (Cuasa) have said they will appeal against it going through. <\/p>\n

The BCX board has appointed an independent adviser to help it consider the offer and will make a recommendation to BCX shareholders soon, it says. <\/p>\n

However, it says \u201cit is not precluded from entertaining any other bona fide offers during the process.\u201d Analysts Moneyweb<\/i> spoke to were not willing to speculate who potential suitors might be.<\/p>\n

Telkom shares closed 1,3% lower at R163,84 apiece, yesterday. <\/font><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The offer by fixed-line operator Telkom for SA\u2019s number three information technology (IT) company \u2013 Business Connexion (BCX) \u2013 was cemented yesterday afternoon as Telkom said its potential offer had become a firm intention to buy all BCX\u2019s issued share capital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-548443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548443"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}