Investec Group has increased its stake in The IQ Business Group by acquiring another 5% interest, and has moved its 50% holding out of Financial IQ, the former joint venture between IQ and Fedsure.
The IQ Business Group now has total ownership of its financial services business, which frees it to expand its current use of local resources and intellectual property to underpin a number of international projects with multinational clients such as CitiStreet, NSP Buck, Morgan Stanley and London Electricity.
IQ`s main strategic shareholders are now Investec (15%), Hoskens Consolidated Investments (16%), Nedcor (23.5%) and IQ staff, management and share incentive trust (38%).
IQ SA`s CEO, Chris Sinclair, says the local operations are the cornerstone for the group`s international strategy.
"IQ aims to export 40% of its locally designed and built technology internationally. This technology will be deployed and managed together with our operational units situated in different parts of the globe."
Sinclair says the maturing model of international companies purchasing business and software solutions offshore, pioneered by India, creates significant opportunities for the group, with SA being seen as an alternative offering, especially to European companies seeking a solutions and outsourcing partner in the same time zone.
"Our ability to align and leverage our South African-based skills is enhanced by ownership of both our healthcare and financial services business units, which constitute a major portion of our revenues.
"This also enables us to integrate our various competencies and apply more rigorous internal corporate fitness - the benefits of which can be passed on to our clients."
He adds that IQ continues to support the principle of sharing risk with business partners through joint venture activities.
"The partnering model continues to be one of our key approaches to gaining accelerated access to new markets. The joint ventures in both the healthcare and financial services have positioned us as significant process and technology players in both these markets.
"Now that the businesses are established, however, better shareholder value is created through a 100% ownership model, with the joint venture partner either realising equity value or taking a stake in the IQ Group as a whole."
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