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4Sight acquiring major stake in simulation company

Paula Gilbert
By Paula Gilbert, ITWeb telecoms editor.
Johannesburg, 09 Apr 2018
4Sight CEO and co-founder Antonie van Rensburg.
4Sight CEO and co-founder Antonie van Rensburg.

4Sight Holdings has entered into an agreement to acquire a 70% stake in Simulation Engineering Technologies (SET) for R53.5 million.

The deal, effective as of 1 April, will see SET become a subsidiary of 4Sight Holdings but is still subject to some conditions which must be met before 15 April.

SET is an independent consulting company that specialises in creating accurate discrete-event computer simulation models of complex systems in the mining, rail, logistics, manufacturing and service industries. SET was established in 2004 and has offices in Cape Town and Centurion.

4Sight Holdings is incorporated in Mauritius and operates in the telecommunications, media and property services industries, and utilises big data, machine learning, artificial intelligence, blockchain technology and data science capabilities.

It says the acquisition is in line with its acquisitive and organic growth strategy of acquiring industry 4.0 companies and "provides the 4Sight Holdings group with deep skills in data science and real-time decision-making solutions, with large customer bases internationally and in South Africa, and the ability to enhance solutions across customers and industries".

SET's professional services include the application of various industrial engineering techniques and principles, such as process simulation, production scheduling, warehouse slotting optimisation capacity planning, operations improvement, systems optimisation, work studies, training, etc. SET is also a supplier of various simulation, scheduling and optimisation software packages in Africa and the Middle East, with strategic partnerships across the globe.

4Sight says the aggregate purchase consideration for the acquisition is R53 544 353, which is payable in 4Sight shares. The net asset value of SET, as extracted from its annual financial statements for the year ended 28 February 2017, was close to R4.4 million and the profit after tax was R1 million.

4Sight Holdings listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange's Alternative Exchange in October 2017. The group's stock was trading at R1.30 per share this morning, a drop of around 36% since it first listed.

Since listing, the group has been on an acquisition drive, announcing last October the purchase of AGE Technologies for R80 million as well as the acquisition of BluESP Holdings for R54.8 million. In January 2018, it finalised the acquisition of Foursight South Africa and its subsidiaries, for R85.6 million.

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