Business Connexion confirms that it is “business as usual” while the company awaits the final decision on its proposed merger with Telkom.
On 14 May 2015, Business Connexion Group (BCX) and Telkom Group reported that the Competition Commission of South Africa had recommended to the Competition Tribunal that the proposed merger should be approved, albeit with certain conditions.
This follows approvals already obtained from other authorities, including, The Namibian Competition Commission, The Tanzania Fair Competition Commission, The Competition Authority in Botswana and The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa Commission (COMESA).
The proposed transaction is in line with the global trend of information technology and telecoms convergence, which is driving the development of rapidly changing products and services and re-shaping the overall IT and telecoms business landscape.
“We believe that working together with Telkom will improve our customer value proposition through a greater ability to provide integrated end-to-end ICT solutions,” says Isaac Mophatlane, CEO of BCX.
He adds that BCX remains committed to its long-term strategy, particularly its growth plans for the continent. “Telkom indicated its intention to keep BCX as an independent subsidiary with its existing brand and to retain the current leadership structure. In terms of an agreed-upon delegation of authority, BCX is expected to continue to enjoy a reasonable level of autonomy, which will enable it to continue the execution of its long term strategy,” says Mophatlane.
BCX has built up an international footprint, with presence in markets such as Botswana, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia, Dubai and the UK.
“Telkom has a number of points-of-presence across the African continent, which together with the capabilities of our existing in-country communications services partnerships and Business Connexion’s infrastructure and software capabilities, could provide compelling cloud services offerings,” he says.
Mophatlane adds that one of the key elements of the BCX long-term strategy, which will drive future business growth, remains geographical expansion outside BCX’s South African home market. “As such BCX remains totally committed to the key markets we are operating in.”
The Competition Tribunal will set the matter down for hearing in due course.
“Regardless of the outcome of the proposed merger transaction, we continue to operate as normal and focus on our customers. Our priority is to ensure that there is no impact on customer service whilst the proposed transaction is underway,” Mophatlane says.