Reshaad Sha

Well-known South African technology industry entrepreneur Reshaad Sha is involved in a buyout of Altron Nexus from JSE-listed Altron Group, it has emerged.

As part of the acquisition – which is still subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions – Altron Nexus will be rebranded as Sentiv, a portmanteau of “sentient” and “intuitive”.

The buyout is led by Sha, who will serve as Sentiv’s executive chairman, and Louis du Toit, the business’s MD, who will become CEO of Sentiv.

“Together they will steer Sentiv’s transformation into a future-orientated technology partner offering intelligent, context-aware, mission-critical communications and industrial internet-of-things solutions,” according to a statement from the acquiring parties.

“Altron Nexus, now rebranded as Sentiv, has played a pivotal role in shaping South Africa’s mission-critical communications landscape for over half a century,” said Sha in the statement.

“From supporting the communications needs of police services and emergency responders to enabling disaster management and industrial operations, its legacy is deeply entrenched in the nation’s infrastructure.”

Announcing the acquisition on Monday alongside its annual results, Altron told investors that Altron Nexus was the group’s last remaining discontinued operation.

Net asset value

In its annual results for the year ended 28 February 2025, which were also published on Monday, Altron said Altron Nexus reported revenue of R343-million, compared to R659-million in the prior year. Ebitda — a measure of operating profitability — improved to a loss of R149-million from a loss of R421 million.

The net asset value of Altron Nexus reflected in the group’s financial statements was R146-million, after the elimination of intercompany loans on consolidation.

“Under the terms of the management buyout (MBO) transaction, the acquirers of Altron Nexus will assume all company-related debt, excluding any obligations that are specifically excluded. “Other than the repayment of intercompany loans, the MBO transaction is not expected to generate any disposal proceeds for the group.”

Sha has extensive experience in building telecommunications infrastructure, especially IoT networks. He is former CEO of Dark Fibre Africa’s former IoT business, SqwidNet, which built a national IoT network using technology from French company Sigfox. That business subsequently brought in new shareholders and was rebranded as Sigfox South Africa.