Privately held network infrastructure company Interconnect has announced that its executive team has bought out the share of the company held by its remaining co-founder, Tai van Aswegen. The transaction will be effective on 31 March 2023.
“The management buyout is important because it gives our highly experienced executive team a real stake in the business, something that’s particularly important as we are experiencing significant growth which we expect to continue for the foreseeable future,” says Herman de Vries, CEO of Interconnect. “Although we are a relatively young team, the new shareholders have well over 100 years of experience and a strong commitment to growing the company.”
Interconnect focuses on the corporate network infrastructure market and has a large base of blue-chip clients which it services through 17 branches across South Africa–the largest geographical footprint in the industry.
In 2022, the company delivered 11% turnover growth and Mr de Vries expects the 2023 figure to be in excess of 35%. This high growth is fuelling a search for experienced and motivated talent; the company is aiming to reach a headcount of 471, a 17% increase on its 2021 total of 420 employees. This growth can be attributed to renewed investment in their network infrastructures by big corporates, much of it driven by the need to mitigate the risk associated with prolonged loadshedding. Over the past two years, the company has installed more than 1 500 inverters and batteries.
Another important consequence of the management buyout is that the company now becomes a Level 2 B-BBEE contributor. It is now 51% black owned, and 31% black-female-owned. Mr de Vries says that exceeding 50% black ownership will entitle the company to bid for government work, which represents a significant potential market for the company.
In terms of the buyout, Van Aswegen will step down as chairman, although he will remain as an exclusive consultant to the company. As of 1 April 2023, existing Interconnect Systems board member Joe Monakali will be chairperson. He and fellow current board member Dr Candice Booysen are joined by new members, Pierre van Aswegen, and Eugene Lamb. Herman de Vries remains in his role as CEO of the company and reports to the board of directors of Interconnect Systems.
“These are exciting times for Interconnect and our clients as we build on our 37 years of experience to further consolidate our position as South Africa’s leading provider of network infrastructure,” says De Vries.