Westcon-Comstor SYNNEX transaction

On 6 June 2017, the Group announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Westcon-Comstor business in North America and Latin America (“Westcon Americas”) to SYNNEX Corporation, for a maximum consideration of US$800 million and to sell 10% of the remaining part of Westcon-Comstor (“Westcon International”) to SYNNEX, for US$30 million.

This transaction provides a unique opportunity for Datatec to partner with a leading distribution business in North America and benefit from its significant scale while at the same time allowing the Group to rectify the outstanding issues with its transformation process which will improve operational efficiencies across the remaining Westcon-Comstor businesses in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific.

There is clear industrial logic for the combination of the two businesses, which are highly complementary. Westcon-Comstor’s specialisation and expertise is in security, UCC and networking. Combined with SYNNEX’s significant North American presence, extensive product line and customers, the enlarged business will have greater scale in services enablement for customers. The partnership with SYNNEX (NYSE: SNX), a well-respected Fortune 500 corporation, will provide significant opportunity for growth.

As this transaction was announced after the FY17 results announcement, it is not within the scope of this Integrated Report. Among the conditions precedent to closing the transaction (expected in the third quarter of calendar 2017) is shareholder approval and a circular will be sent to shareholders containing full details of the transaction.