Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko
Photo by: Duane Daws
Following the Competition Tribunal’s approval, with conditions, of JSE-listed Telkom’s play for information and communication technology (ICT) firm Business Connexion (BCX), the telecommunications giant now eyed the approval of the Takeover Regulations Panel and the JSE.
The R2.67-billion deal was expected to bolster Telkom’s turnaround and growth aspirations, while improving and enhancing Telkom’s ICT service offering to its customers, said Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko on Wednesday at a media briefing in Rosebank.
The Competition Commission gave its conditional approval in May, followed by the Tribunal nod on Tuesday.
Telkom was now gearing up to conclude the deal that had been 816 days in the making.
“The last hurdle is now probably closer, rather than further away,” he added, noting that the deal’s implementation and integration plan would be initiated around September 1, subject to the approval of the takeover panel and the delisting of BCX from the JSE.
The Tribunal-imposed conditions included a price freeze on affected products in the upstream by Telkom, a 60-person limit on the number of job losses arising from the tie-up, the ring-fencing of BCX in relation to monitoring conditions and the inclusion of the copper network offering to the affected products.
“The conditions imposed are not onerous . . . nor do they bring undue burden on the company,” Maseko added.