/ 11 September 2008

Datatec buys stake in India’s Inflow

South African IT company Datatec said on Thursday it has acquired a 50,01% stake in Inflow Technologies, an Indian ICT distribution business, for an undisclosed amount.

The company said the remaining 49,99% stake in Inflow will be held by management and existing shareholders.

Inflow is a value-added distributor focusing on technology enablement and distribution of security, storage and networking products, solutions and services. It has alliances with 22 global technology vendors.

”India is a very large and fast-growing market offering strong prospects in our sector with a lower cost of entry, compared with many other developing markets, and potentially higher returns and greater organic investment opportunities,” said Datatec CEO Jens Montanana.

”Our investment in Inflow is another important step in our international strategy to increase our exposure to the world’s major emerging markets, which has recently seen our presence grow in markets such as Africa, the Middle East, Turkey and Brazil.”

Byju Pillai, CEO of Inflow Technologies commented: ”This investment, along with access to global best practices of Datatec in value-added distribution, gives us greater ability to grow our market share, make alliances with new technology vendors and expand into new geographies.” — Reuters, I-Net Bridge