South Africa’s Telkom offers to buy Business Connexion for $256 million

South Africa’s Telkom SA has offered to buy Business Connexion in an expansion bid.  The 2.67 billion rand ($256 million) offer will see Telkom SA expand its information and communication technology services.  Under the transaction, ordinary shareholders will receive 6.60 rand per share, a 20 percent premium over the 5.50 rand the stock was at before Business Connexion first alerted the market about a possible deal on April 15.

“A key consideration of our strategy is to grow beyond our core business of connectivity and expand into end-to-end ICT services,” Telkom Chief Executive Sipho Maseko said in a statement.  Maseko also said, “This will form part of the strategy to improve performance and restore profitability.”  Business Connexion, which runs information technology infrastructure such as data centers, will become a Telkom subsidiary from Johannesburg’s stock exchange if the deal goes through.