Shareholders of information technology (IT) outsourcing company Business Connexion (BCX) have voted “overwhelmingly” in favour of the R2.67-billion takeover by Telkom.

The deal would see Telkom paying R6.60 an ordinary share and R6.60 an “A” share, representing a premium of 20% over the share price of BCX at close of trading on April 14, the day before a cautionary announcement related to the deal was issued.

BCX announced on Friday that it would pay a special dividend to shareholders of up to 20c an ordinary share prior to the implementation of the proposed transaction.

This dividend distribution was over and above the R6.60 a share offered by Telkom.

“We believe that working with Telkom will improve our customer value proposition through a greater ability to provide integrated end-to-end information communication technology solutions and a more global and competitive offering, particularly on the African continent.

“There are also some synergies between our respective businesses, which will be explored in more detail as we get closer to the completion of the transaction,” commented BCX CEO Isaac Mophatlane.

BCX said the transaction was in line with its existing convergence strategy, as major global technological changes continued to drive the convergence of the IT and the telecoms industries.

The merger was expected to advance the company’s convergence strategy and present new opportunities for staff in the greater combined entity.

“This is a key milestone in the proposed transaction process and we will now work together with Telkom on a number of conditions which remain to be fulfilled for this deal to happen,” Mophatlane added. 

The proposed transaction remained subject to several conditions, including approval by the competition authorities and other regulatory approvals.

Based on the current timeline, the deal was expected to be finalised in November 2014.