Dimension Data has new BEE deal

Dimension Data will announce its new broadbased black economic empowerment deal in October, following the end of its 13-year partnership with Convergence Partners.

Dimension Data will announce its new broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) deal in October, following the end of its 13-year partnership with Convergence Partners.

Convergence Partners, led by businessman Andile Ngcaba, Dimension Data employees and other black-led community groups bought a 25% stake in the company in 2005 for R380m.

Convergence Partners CEO Brandon Doyle said that the company had sold its shares to Dimension Data owners Nippon Telegraph and Telephone.

Ngcaba stepped down as chairman of Dimension Data Middle East and Africa to focus on the other investments of Convergence Partners.

Dimension Data said that although Convergence Partners had exited its investments in the group, it remained co-investors in several Dimension Data businesses across SA and elsewhere in Africa. Doyle would not reveal shareholding structures.

Dimension Data said that it remained a Level 2 BBBEE contributor and was also “well advanced with respect to its new BBBEE scheme”.

The company said Ngcaba had played a strategic and operational role in transforming Dimension Data Middle East and Africa group of companies.

He had also made a significant contribution to job creation; investments in education; small, micro to medium enterprises; and community development initiatives, it said.

In 2012, Dimension Data paid R1.26bn to the Convergence Partners-led consortium after the companies’ seven-year agreement ended. Convergence Partners and 35 community groups reinvested the bulk of the payout in Dimension Data, which helped the group retain its BBBEE targets.

The employee trust folded after 2,177 previously disadvantaged employees who had worked for Dimension Data when the deal was clinched, were paid out.

The empowerment deal helped Dimension data secure public sector businesses and achieve BBBEE targets.