The R24.2 billion offer from Japanese telecoms company Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) to buy out Dimension Data will not have any effect on the local unit's black-economic empowerment status.
Dimension Data entered into an empowerment deal in September 2004 when a consortium, led by current DiData SA chairman Andile Ngcaba, bought 25.01% of the South African subsidiary for R380 million.
In the middle of last month, DiData surprised the market when it said that NTT had offered £2.1 billion to buy it out. The deal, expected to be wrapped up in October, will result in DiData being de-listed from both the Johannesburg and London stock exchanges.
Director Patrick Quarmby explains that the buyout is happening at a holding company level, and does not affect the empowerment status of the South African subsidiary, although the local unit is also being bought by NTT.
Quarmby adds that empowerment is important for DiData SA, and is taken seriously. In March, the company was named as the top empowered company in the ICT sector at the annual Metropolitan Oliver Empowerment Awards ceremony.
The 2004 deal resulted in an empowerment consortium comprising Ngcaba Holdings, Safika Holdings, and a group of broad-based BEE participants, involving a number of empowerment groups from around the country, acquiring a stake in the company.
Ngcaba Holdings undertook to allocate 2.9% of its 12.71% shareholding to a group of broad based BEE participants. Safika relinquished 1% to the broad-based group and DiData SA contributed 6.3%, taking the total broad-based shareholding in DiData SA to 10.20%.
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