LAF - Lonrho Africa - Lonrho Bytes Into The Africa
LAF
LOLAF
LAF - Lonrho Africa - Lonrho Bytes Into The African It Industry
Lonrho Africa Plc
(Incorporated and registered in England and Wales)
(Registration number 2805337)
(Share code: LAF; ISIN number: GB0002568813)
("Lonrho Africa" or "the Company")
LONRHO BYTES INTO THE AFRICAN IT INDUSTRY
Lonrho is pleased to announce that it has exchanged contracts to acquire
65% of one of Mozambique`s largest commercial Information Technology
Solution Providers, Sociedade Comercial Bytes & Pieces, Limitada ("Bytes &
Pieces"), which provides turnkey network solutions and maintenance and
support to Mozambique businesses, NGO`s and Government organisations. Bytes
& Pieces featured at 53 in the KPMG "Top 100 Companies in Mozambique"
survey in 2004.
Bytes & Pieces is an authorized distributor of Dell equipment in
Mozambique, providing Enterprise Solutions on a Dell hardware platform.
The IT company is a Microsoft Certified Partner and was awarded the System
Builder Partner of the Year 2006 for East and Southern Africa. Bytes &
Pieces is also an authorized distributor or value added reseller for CISCO
Systems, MGE UPS Systems and Legrand networking products.
Lonrho is buying the stake in the Bytes & Pieces for $2.34m and will take
up two thirds of the board positions. The two founders of Bytes & Pieces,
Vijay Thadani and Veronica Miller, will together retain 35%. Bytes & Pieces
recorded profits before tax of US$854,000 in 2006, on revenue of US$8.6 m.
The company now plans to expand into the region using the Bytes & Pieces
model with a distribution division for high quality networking products and
also with an Enterprise Solutions implementation division based upon the
Dell hardware platform. The first countries in which the company will
expand include South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Swaziland, Lesotho,
Botswana, Namibia, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Lonrho Chairman and CEO David Lenigas commented:
"As the majority shareholder in Bytes & Pieces, Lonrho intends to further
build on the IT company`s success and replicate the business model built up
in Mozambique to the rest of Africa."
"This acquisition is another example of Lonrho`s strategy of investing in
African infrastructure. We are entering into this field as it services
African business with high quality IT solutions, an essential tool for
helping them to grow and prosper while keeping up with the rest of the
world"
7 June 2007
South African sponsor to Lonrho Africa Plc
Java Capital (Proprietary) Limited
Date: 07/06/2007 12:40:30 Produced by the JSE SENS Department.
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