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Alviva completes R2.5bn buyout deal

Samuel Mungadze
By Samuel Mungadze, Africa editor
Johannesburg, 21 Feb 2023
Alviva CEO Pierre Spies.
Alviva CEO Pierre Spies.

JSE-listed technology group Alviva will delist all its shares from the local bourse in March.

Alviva, an ICT products and services provider, yesterday announced the delisting of all the Alviva shares from the JSE after fulfilling all conditions set out in a buyout deal announced last year.

A consortium − consisting of Tham Investments, P Ramasamy, Day One Asset Management and certain members of Alviva management − offered to take over the company for R2.5 billion, offering R28 per Alviva share.

Yesterday, Alviva informed shareholders all conditions of the deal were “fulfilled on 17 February 2023”. Accordingly, the company said, the delisting of Alviva shares on the JSE will be on 7 March.

Alviva will now become a majority black-owned, privately-held, information and communications technology firm, it said.

It is one of Africa’s largest providers of ICT products and services. The group operates through four business segments: ICT distribution, services and solutions, financial services and group central service.

Led by CEO Pierre Spies, Alviva has been chasing growth in the last two years. In the period, the company took over its competitor Tarsus in a R185 million deal.

At the time, the company said the Tarsus deal was motivated by the expansion of its IT distribution businesses into the customer segment where it had limited exposure.

The desire to grow the cloud solutions business also necessitated the deal, as Tarsus’s cloud business was significantly larger than that of Alviva.

Since the Tarsus takeover, the company has recorded some success, as evidenced by Alviva’s performance in fiscal year 2022, in which it recorded a blowout performance.

In the year, revenue surged 57% to R23.4 billion, dividends increased by 90% to 55c per share and headline earnings per share rose by 91% to R5.45.

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