Treacle pays R18m for IT firm stake

Johannesburg, 25 May 2001 - Treacle Venture Partners, the R245 million private equity and venture capital fund, has acquired the Sanlam Group's 12 percent shareholding in Datacentrix Holdings, the listed information and technology (IT) group, for R18 million, Gary Morolo, Datacentrix's chairman, said this week.

Morolo, who has just become the executive chairman, said the acquisition followed solid financial results from Datacentrix in its third year as a listed company.

“Datacentrix has successfully established itself and is now positioning the group for a new trajectory of growth as a focused IT company, and the coming on board of Treacle is an essential step in that direction,” he said.

Gerhard Uys, Datacentrix's chief executive, said the group had no doubt Treacle would be a participatory shareholder and add tangible value.

Morolo said Rudolf Pretorius, Christoff Botha and Konrad Fleischhauer, the partners in Treacle, have a collective 25 years of investment banking and private equity experience.

He said this experience should ensure a positive contribution of adding strategic value, advising on corporate governance issues and participation as non-executive directors on various boards within the Datacentrix group.

Datacentrix also announced a number of new appointments, including Botha and Natanya Kuper-Cohen from Gensec NSA, as non-executive directors.

Stewart Barker, the chief executive of Commerce Centre, the e-business venture that is 70% owned by Datacentrix, and Charl Joubert, the chief executive of Datacentrix Business Solutions, were both appointed as executive directors.

Datacentrix closed unchanged at 90c on the JSE Securities Exchange yesterday.