Didata acquisition gets green light

Johannesburg - The R24.4bn acquisition of ICT group Dimension Data Holdings [JSE:DDT] by Japanese telecommunications giant NTT has been approved by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and the South African Reserve Bank. The deal will see Dimension Data delist from the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges upon completion of the cash sale.

A statement issued by Dimension Data on Friday said: "NTT and Dimension Data are pleased to announce that the exchange control department of the South African Reserve Bank and the South African minister of finance have approved the offer.  Accordingly the related condition to the offer has been fulfilled."

The deal will see NTT acquiring all of Dimension Data's issued share capital. Chairperson of the DiData board Jeremy Ord said it will "business as usual" at Dimension Data for the foreseeable future, however, and that the brand and current operations of the group will continue.

CEO of the NTT group Satoshi Miura said that Dimension Data is a key part of NTT's strategy for cloud computing, data centre and IT services which are becoming a focus for telecommunications companies.

The deal is expected to close in October.

Last week, the South African market regulator said it was looking into Dimension Data's share price for signs of insider trading in the days before the NTT bid was announced.

"We're looking into the share price moves in relation to the NTT offer," said Gerhard van Deventer, an executive director at the Financial Services Board, according to a Reuters report.

"We haven't started (an investigation) yet."

The JSE-listed shares of Dimension Data gained 4.8% over the three days before NTT made its offer, hitting their highest since 2002 the day before the offer was made.

 - Fin24.com