South African telecommunications services provider Telkom SA believes the merger with ICT services provider Business Connexion Group Limited (BCX), approved earlier this month by the Competition Tribunal of South Africa, represents a fresh opportunity to chart a new course into Africa.

The acquisition, which is expected to be concluded by 25 August 2015, will enable Telkom to expand into ICT services, reinforce its connectivity offering and enhance its convergence strategy, said Sipho Maseko, Telkom Group chief executive officer.

In a statement released to the media Maseko said that the deal repositions Telkom strategically to engage the continent going forward. "The last time we went into the continent as Telkom it didn't go that well. We believe with BCX existence in various countries in Africa, it provides a favourable environment for us to access Africa's growth opportunities even further" he said.

BCX footprint

BCX says it employs 6,700 people in Africa and has presence in various markets including Botswana, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania and Zambia.

In June the company's chief executive officer Isaac Mophatlane said there was a need to "bed down" the Telkom deal before aggressively pursuing its pan-Africa strategy.

"Telkom has a number of points-of-presence across the African continent, which together with the capabilities of our existing in-country communications services partnerships and Business Connexion's infrastructure and software capabilities, could provide compelling cloud services offerings," he adds.

In the short term Ghana , Ethiopia and Zimbabwe have been identified as strong possible regions to engage.

Maseko noted the integration process of the companies will be in the reverse, where Telkom's business will be integrated into BCX. "That makes sense; it's strategic, correct and it enables us to tap into their capability"

Mophatlane added, "BCX has very strong capabilities in managed IT Infrastructure, including data centres, cloud based services and application development and the merger will enable Telkom to expand its existing offerings whilst, at the same time, providing scale in IT services, which will help reinforce Telkom's core connectivity business and enhance Telkom's convergence strategy".