Telkom has appointed a Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) consortium of five legal firms to work as part of the legal team with the consortium of Werksmans and Paul, Hastings, Janofsky and Walker LLP that was appointed in December last year as Telkom`s legal advisors on the Initial Public Offering (IPO) process.
In line with Telkom`s commitment to ensure transfer of skills to previously disadvantaged groups, the consortium of Maponya Inc., Nalane Manaka Attorneys, Huntley Kekana Seth Inc., Mukwevho Adekeye Inc. and Qunta Ntsebeza Attorneys will handle at least 35% of the South African portion of its IPO legal work.
The consortium`s appointment marks the end of Phase Two of Telkom`s selection process for legal advisors, which began when a request for proposal for BEE legal advisors was sent out on 8 December 2000. Nine bids were received by the closing date of 12 January 2001, and five bidders were interviewed.
The BEE consortia that submitted bids were evaluated on several stringent criteria, including the experience and expertise of each law firm in the consortium. Their ability to meet Telkom`s BEE requirement that the consortium is materially owned and controlled by black South Africans and is commercially active on an ongoing basis were also critical considerations.
Other selection criteria included the consortium`s diversity profile on race and gender, the professional quality of the pre-qualification submission document, their hourly charge out rate and their ability to meet Telkom`s terms and conditions.
"Telkom is pleased to have extended our BEE reach to the legal sector in South Africa, having invested R3 billion of our total spend with BEE companies in last financial year," said Telkom`s CEO, Sizwe Nxasana.
He reiterated that Telkom was confident about the financial and legal advisors it had selected, and that the Company was now fully geared to working alongside the Government and its team to make the IPO a success.
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