The Competition Commission has officially approved Huge Group Ltd’s purchase of Centracell (Pty) Ltd. This was the last outstanding item for completion of the Centracell purchase. The purchase of Centracell was first announced in August 2007, barely a week after the Huge Group’s very successful listing on the AltX exchange of the JSE.
The Huge Group’s Finance Director James Herbst comments, “We are delighted to be able to finally put this transaction to bed. The approval took far longer than we expected: consequently we are more than eager to get to grips with extracting the expected synergies.”
CEO Anton Potgieter says the business of Centracell will be merged into subsidiary Huge Telecom (Pty) Ltd. TelePassport was renamed Huge Telecom on listing: “We have the best managed-telecom back-end systems in the industry – a platform which has been developed over 15 years. This is going to make the merging of the two businesses a walk in the park. We have a highly skilled IT department: they are incredibly competent”
Potgieter continues, “After the merger, Huge Telecom – which provides complete managed telecommunications services to corporate clients in South Africa – will boast monthly annuity revenues of over R47-million. Centracell gives Huge Telecom a critical mass which will translate into key benefits that include better service delivery, economies of scale, purchasing power and margin uplift”. On top of this Potgieter expects strong organic growth in Huge Telecom over the coming financial year.
The Huge Group is currently also awaiting Competition Commission approval for its acquisition of iTalk Cellular, which was announced in December 2007. iTalk adds a strong consumer focused offering to the Group.
The Huge Group’s financial year is drawing to a close at the end of February, and the market is sure to be watching this new listing’s maiden numbers with interest particularly after it was recently ranked the 3rd best newcomer on the JSE for 2007 by Moneyweb.
About the Huge Group Ltd:
The Huge Group is a telecommunications holding company, which listed on the AltX exchange of the JSE Limited on 8th August 2007. The Huge Group includes:
– Subsidiary Huge Telecom, formed by the merger of wholly owned subsidiaries TelePassport (Pty) Ltd and Centracell (Pty) Ltd (corporate: managed telecommunications);
– Subsidiary iTalk Cellular (Pty) Ltd (consumer: GSM handsets, broadband and telemetry);
– Associate company TelePassport Communications (Pty) Ltd (Namibian)(corporate: managed telecommunications).
The Huge Group trades on the AltX exchange of the JSE under the share code HUG. Further information can be found at www.hugegroup.com.
Contact:
Anton Potgieter
Chief Executive Officer
011-603-6000
082-855-0505
