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Bytes sells conference centre to BEE company

Kgaogelo Letsebe
By Kgaogelo Letsebe, Portals journalist
Johannesburg, 24 Feb 2017

Bytes Technology Group has sold a 51% stake in its Bytes Conference Centre business to empowerment group Iyavaya HR Solutions. The partnership became effective in earlier this month.

Iyavaya HR is a 51% black woman-owned and managed company providing specialist services in the fields of black economic empowerment (BEE), employment equity, skills development, health and safety, and staffing strategies and solutions.

Thembi Chagonda, MD of Iyavaya, and Jonathan Goldberg, CEO of Global Business Solutions, a leading labour law, human resources and industrial relations consultancy will become members of the Bytes Conference Centre board, along with Paul Campbell, MD of Bytes Conference Centre, and Mkhuseli Tindleni, facilities lead at Altron Shared Services.

Chagonda and Goldberg are part of the Iyavaya HR Solutions board while Altron is the holding company of Bytes.

Andrew Holden, operations executive: information technology at Altron, under which the conference centre resides, says the partnership with Iyavaya is part of the company's commitment to invest in black-owned SMEs in order to drive value for the business and to bring a fresh impetus to the conference centre as it seeks to broaden its services to a bigger audience.

Last year, Altron announced that it will be selling off its battery unit, Powertech, to Trinitas for R300 million. Trinitas is a black-empowered, independent private equity advisor, formed as a joint venture among the founding executives, Sasfin Bank and Peotona Group, to establish Trinitas Private Equity Fund. The founding executives of the fund are Andrew Hall, John Stipinovich and Soteris Theorides, who have worked together as a private equity team since 2001.

Speaking about the deal, Holden said: "Both Thembi and Jonathan bring niche expertise to the partnership and we look forward to working with them as we position the Bytes Conference Centre as a leading conferencing and events centre."

The Bytes Conference Centre, which is located in Midrand, Gauteng, is a multi-purpose venue that can accommodate up to 300 delegates. The venue is managed by an events team and can be used for conferences, exhibitions, product launches, presentations, graduation ceremonies, IT training, cocktail parties and gala dinners.

The company has indicated that future plans for the conference include undergoing a R10 million renovation to improve the technology for customer usage. "This will include a new look auditorium with state-of-the art audio-visual equipment, revamping the existing d'ecor and meeting rooms, an addition to the creation of a 150 m^2 walk-through enterprise business centre with exhibition room, two boardrooms and coffee bars which will also be a showcase room for Bytes Technology Group," said the company.

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