Johannesburg, 09 Feb 2005
Multinational business application software group SAP has agreed to sell a 25% stake in its local operations to an empowerment shareholder.
SAP Africa MD Claas Kuehnemann says the board of German-based parent company SAP AG has agreed in principle to sell the stake.
No deal has been struck yet, but Kuehnemann says the search for the right broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE) partner is at an advanced stage.
"SAP believes this step will help give further momentum to our efforts to meet our obligations in terms of the ICT charter and the Black Economic Empowerment Act," he says.
The deadline for the implementation of the ICT BEE charter is 1 March.
"Several years ago we were the first IT multinational to introduce empowerment shareholders when we established SAP Public Services, which itself has a 30% BEE shareholder in the form of Blitec. We now need to deepen and extend the idea behind that early BEE transaction.
The African and South African operations are to be restructured, with SAP Public Services being incorporated into a new entity, SAP SA, which includes the rest of the South African business.
The operations in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa will be known as SAP Africa Region and will be owned independently by SAP AG.
SAP SA, to be chaired by Kuehnemann, will have seven board members, with one position reserved for an empowerment shareholder nominee.
Kuehnemann says talks are under way with a number of parties. The core requirement is that the new shareholder be broad-based, as SAP believes this is most in keeping with the spirit of empowerment.
Share