South African state-owned rail group Transnet and power utility Eskom on Tuesday invited offers for the purchase of IT firm arivia.kom, the groups said.
Transnet and Eskom invited interested bidders to submit an expression of interest by March 14 as part of the bidding process for arivia.kom. The winning offer will also secure five-year outsourcing contracts with Transnet and Eskom.
They gave no indication of price.
Services that may be outsourced included mainframe and IT help-desk services.
Eskom owns 58,5% of arivia.kom and Transnet owns 41,5%. Arivia.kom provides IT services to businesses and was formed when Eskom, Transnet and state-owned defence firm Denel merged their IT units.
Transnet is selling non-core assets as it seeks to focus on rail and logistics as the government pumps cash into infrastructure to help boost growth.
Transnet has already sold up to 100% of Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront, the country’s top tourist spot, and a 5% stake in cell phone operator MTN. — Reuters