Japan’s NEC and South African-headquartered technology group XON have reached a cross-shareholding investment deal that has resulted in NEC Europe acquiring 25% of XON Holdings. In turn, XON has acquired 49% of NEC Africa.
The value of the transactions is not being disclosed, in part because of the complexity of the structure, which includes an exchange of shares, says NEC Africa MD and president Eugene le Roux.
The two companies will have an “integrated market approach that will combine their local expertise in the region to provide greater sales coverage in the sub-Saharan African market”, they say.
Specifically, they intend targeting the telecommunications, government, enterprise and energy sectors.
NEC Africa MD Eugene le Roux says the transaction follows 18 months of discussions about the potential for pursuing joint opportunities in Africa and comes four years after NEC established a dedicated African operation.
NEC says it hopes the deal with XON will allow it to “meet the pent-up demand” for its solutions by “massively expanding” its sub-Saharan African business consulting, systems integration and managed service support footprint and sales coverage.
Together, the two companies hope to double their revenues in the next two or three years.
NEC’s enterprise and display businesses in the region do not form part of the deal. The Japanese firm’s existing channel business will continue as normal. – © 2015 NewsCentral Media
