Information and communications technology (ICT) services and solutions company Dimension Data on Thursday announced that its R328-million offer to acquire Nairobi Securities Exchange- (NSE-) listed AccessKenya had become unconditional as all the preconditions of the offer had been satisfied.

Dimension Data was expected to pay shareholders who had accepted the offer on September 6, on which date it would become the majority owner of AccessKenya.

As of August 15, when the offer closed, the ICT company had received acceptances from shareholders owning about 89% of AccessKenya’s shares.

“The 89% of shareholders accepting the offer from Dimension Data is a resounding vote of confidence in the deal. This milestone transaction is also good for customers, good for Kenya and good for the industry,” Dimension Data adviser Pamoja Capital MD Geoffrey Gangla stated, adding that additional shareholders still had time to accept the offer.

Dimension Data Internet Solutions International MD Nick Reed said the transaction represented an important step in the group’s plan to become a significant provider of converged services across ICT and telecommunications to the enterprise, corporate and small and medium-sized enterprise markets in East Africa.

”We are pleased that we were able to deliver value to participating shareholders and we are particularly excited by AccessKenya’s metropolitan fibre network which covers 430 km and connects over 560 buildings in the main urban centres of Nairobi and Mombasa, as well as its outstanding customer base of over 6 000 corporate leased lines,” he added.
 
AccessKenya MD Jonathan Somen added that the time was ripe for AccessKenya to leverage the skills set and resources within the broader group, to accelerate investment in the business, and to expand the breadth, depth and scale of the solutions, service and value for money it offered its clients.

Meanwhile, AccessKenya also held an extraordinary general meeting on Tuesday to ask shareholders to vote on delisting AccessKenya from the NSE.

The results released by AccessKenya indicate that holders of 99.92% of the company’s shares voted in favour of the resolution.

According to Gangla, the 99.92% vote in favour of the delisting resolution further reinforced the support of shareholders for the transaction.

“We look forward to integrating the AccessKenya management team and employees fully into our business and joining together its operations with those of Internet Solutions Kenya. We intend to invest further in growing the networks, customers and services,” Reed concluded.