Businessman Ike Moroe - a former journalist, ANC exile and media spokesman - has bought a 51% stake in IT training company IT Intellect, and is planning to capture 4% of the R490 million South African IT training market within a year.
The value of the deal was not disclosed. Moroe, now chairman and CEO of IT Intellect, says the sum paid is "substantial in terms of the fact that IT Intellect is an SMME IT training company".
Former owners Peter Denny and Des Quin remain on the board and will hold the remaining shares in the new black empowered IT training company.
Moroe intends to relinquish his chairmanship of IT Intellect soon, with the current CEO of Denel, Victor Moche, taking over as chairman. Moroe will continue operating as CEO and will turn his attention to steering the company in the right "BEE direction" and increasing market share.
Moroe says he aims to improve the company`s black empowerment compliancy from its current 45% to 95% within six months. He says although the company is already a "true BEE entity", the board will be revised, and within the next six months, will constitute two white directors and five black directors. Of the five black directors, three will be women. In order to comply with corporate governance as laid out in the King Report, the majority of these directors will be non-executive.
He also aims to grow market share by establishing a presence in more remote areas, rather than the major metropolitan areas. With offices in Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pietermaritzburg, Durban and Richards Bay, the company will soon open training centres in Mafeking and Kimberley.
Moroe says although the company will focus on top-end IT skills training, it also runs outreach programmes to draw previously disadvantaged individuals "into the net".
"This will be ongoing and is part of our drive to impart IT skills to individuals who, in the past, have been excluded access. There is still a huge imbalance facing SA from an economic and social point of view and if we are to going thrive - or even survive - as a modern economy we need to dramatically broaden our skills base over the next 10 years."
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