Invicta, which three months ago said it was ready to consider acquisitions after cutting debt, said on Thursday it had agreed to pay more than R500m for Dartcom Group, which distributes communications and renewable energy technology.
The company, chaired by Christo Wiese, said it would pay R50m in cash and issue the seller, Tuludi Capital, shares valued at at R450.8m.
It will also pay a net R64m in cash for two Kgalauwane Properties that are essential to Dartcom’s business. Tuludi is an investment vehicle managed by New GX Capital Group and Kgalauwane Properties Holdings.
On its website, Dartcom said it counted MTN, Eskom and Liquid Telecom among its customers. Its subsidiaries include a provider of fibreoptic cables, produced under licence from Japanese company Furukawa Electric.
It also recently established a unit that operates as a marketplace specialising in fibre networks, as well as tower and power infrastructure projects.
“As part of our strategy to diversify from its industrial base in SA, Invicta wants to establish a diversified telecommunications, renewable energy and related battery storage technologies solutions provider which has growth potential in SA, as well as the rest of the African continent,” the company said in a statement.
“Invicta’s objective is to emulate and leverage off of the existing engineering services and product distribution platform that it has built over the past decades.”
The moves come as companies seek to take advantage of an explosion in demand for fast home internet as Covid-19 looks set to make remote working a permanent feature.
Invicta CEO Steven Joffe, who joined the company in January 2020 to spearhead a strategy of selling assets and reducing debt, told Business Day in June that the process was largely complete and the company was like a “coiled spring” after halving debt and doubling cash generation in the year to March.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.