Recognised as a top performing financial and top BBBEE JSE-listed Company, African Equity Empowerment Investments Limited (AEEI), has acquired a majority shareholding of 57% equity, in ICT company Puleng Technologies.
The acquisition of Puleng, meaning ‘Rain’ or ‘Good Fortune’ in Tswana is effective 1 October 2016 which serves as further evidence of AEEI’s resolve to implement the objectives of its ‘Vision 2020 Vision’ strategic roadmap, which sees it continuing to grow its underlying assets and investments.
Puleng provides its customers with a client-centric strategy to manage and secure the two most valuable assets an organisation has, namely its ‘data’ and ‘users’. It does so while facilitating IT and businesses with a platform to build an efficient, collaborative Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) programme that addresses IT risks facing businesses today.
To further enhance its strategy, Puleng provides Converged Infrastructure Platforms (CIPs), which allow a leveraging of core competitive advantages across a Customer’s computer, Security, Storage, and Virtualisation and Management disciplines.
Khalid Abdulla, group CEO of AEEI, comments: “We welcome Puleng to the AEEI stable. The deal is significant for AEEI with its estimated additional R200 million annual revenue to the Group which will complement and grow our technology division with additional technical skills across the Group, innovation, world-class support to AEEI’s clients and strong returns on investments.
“AEEI’s acquisition of Puleng falls within the Group’s Vision 2020 Vision strategy to deliver value for our stakeholders and is an important breakthrough in our growth plans for our technology division in preparation for a planned listing within the next three to five years. The key to the success of our Vision 2020 Vision strategy is our ability to implement and add long-term value in the businesses that we invest in,” continued Abdulla.
Puleng’s MD Paul Thompson says: “This partnership is critical to Puleng, which after 12 years of remarkable organic growth, is now focused on the next level of development. Puleng’s agility and sensitivity to its current and future market trends will enable it to leverage AEEI’s enviable presence, reputation and position in the market, which also provides us a platform for future exponential growth for the benefit of all concerned.”
It is anticipated that AEEI’s investment into Puleng Technologies will have a pay-back period of three to four years. This ‘payback’ excludes the anticipated exponential capital appreciation expected from this investment.
The purchase consideration for the transaction was concluded partly in issuing shares in AEEI’s subsidiary and technology holding company – this adds to the sentiment that the Puleng shareholders believe in and are committed to this division’s growth and future plans which includes a separate listing. Investment in Puleng is set to significantly increase the revenue of AEEI’s current technology division and contribute to growing the IT sector as well as Group’s overall bottom line.
According to Abdulla: “A sizeable percentage of AEEI’s value now resides now in its technology division. This deal with Puleng is another indication of how our ambition to realise the goals and objectives that we have set out in our Vision 2020 Vision strategy, are coming to fruition.”
AEEI was recently recognised by Empowerdex in its annual benchmark of JSE Listed companies as the Most Empowered Company, the Most Empowered Management Control, and was also listed by the Financial Mail as a Top 10 Performer on the JSE for financial performance. AEEI is ranked amongst the Top 10 places for the IRAS highest SDTI score for governance as well.
