A veil of secrecy surrounds the sale of arivia.kom's subsidiaries, despite expectations that the Competition Commission will rule on T-Systems' purchase of the state IT vendor next month.
One of the company's divisions, Computer Foundation, was recently sold to an unnamed consortium, for an undisclosed amount. Meanwhile, the sale of Face Technologies is, according to sources, at an advanced stage and the deal should be wrapped up within the next few weeks.
It is understood that arivia's shareholders would like to see the company's subsidiaries sold off before the state IT services provider is transferred to T-Systems.
Arivia's sale has taken about four years to complete and, as yet, no official announcement has been made. However, the Competition Commission has confirmed that T-Systems filed papers for the approval of the merger on 1 September.
Keeping mum
A media blackout has kept a veil over the entire arivia.kom deal since it was first announced in October 2006, and potential buyers were also gagged through non-disclosure agreements.
Computer Foundation MD Johan van Heerden confirms the unit has been sold to a consortium - but will not disclose who its members are, or how much they paid.
He says there is a non-disclosure agreement, which has been signed with management and the partners in the consortium, which prevents him from revealing further details.
Van Heerden says both Computer Foundation and Face Technologies were put up for sale at the same time as arivia.kom.
Held for sale
In arivia.kom's financial statements for the year to March, it states: “In accordance with Transnet and Eskom's strategy of disposing of the non-core assets, the board of directors of the company is required to dispose of 100% of its shares in Face Technologies and Computer Foundation.”
Face Technologies houses subsidiaries, such as Intersolve Health Informatics, Prodiba and Tasima. It was formed in 2006 when arivia.kom restructured its Niche Markets division to incorporate the company's Africa division.
Sources indicate that arivia.kom Consulting and Csiper Consulting - the two other main arivia subsidiaries - are to be sold to T-Systems as part of the larger deal.
Computer Foundation offers end-to-end business solutions, creating, enhancing and maintaining spatially enabled management information systems. Its core focus is geographic information systems.
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