Pan African private equity company Convergence Partners has announced that it has acquired all the operations of telecommunication giant Vodacom Business Africa through its digital service provider platform, inq. Holdings Limited (formerly Synergy Communications) based in Mauritius.
Vodacom Business Africa is an enterprise-focused ICT subsidiary of the Vodacom Group. With over US$300mn of capital under management, Convergence Partners brings its skills, experience and capital to develop new investment opportunities as well as actively adding value to investments across the lifecycle of ICT assets.
The 100% acquisition of Vodacom Business Africa’s operations will be effected in Nigeria, Zambia and Cote d’Ivoire with a further planned acquisition in Cameroon pending regulatory approvals.
This transaction grows inq.’s regional footprint as a leading enterprise solutions provider to 13 cities in 7 countries across Africa including its existing operations in Botswana, Malawi and Mozambique.
Under the inq. banner the company will embark on the next phase of building a unified pan-African cloud and digital service provider, bringing to market a very relevant suite of next-generation technology solutions in the fields of Edge, Artificial Intelligence, NFV, and Cloud.
“This represents a further milestone in our journey to create a group serving the enterprise community across sub-Saharan Africa with a uniform high quality of service and consistent product offering”, remarked Brandon Doyle, CEO of Convergence Partners.
“Through inq., we are able to deliver intelligent connectivity through seamless delivery of cloud and digital services and digital technologies to our clients. As global thinking is going through a reset because of COVID-19, inq. is ready to provide business continuity to our global and continental and local clients”, said Andile Ngcaba, Chairman of Convergence Partners and Executive Chairman of inq.
To date, Convergence Partners has partnered with several global best-in-breed operators and has played a leading role in landmark African ICT infrastructure investments that have changed the paradigm in the pricing of broadband services and availability of reliable, quality networks, services, and new technology offerings.
The company was credited for the rolling out of the SEACOM, the first undersea fibre system serving East Africa and the first independent investor-led undersea system for Africa as well New Dawn, the first-ever African private sector, alongside Intelsat owner communications satellite of the world’s largest fleet of communication satellites.
The announcement comes just days after Vodacom released its annual results which has seen a 4.8% increase in group revenue, while group service revenue growth is up by 5%.
