AccessKenya buyer takes up three seats on the board

Dimension Data has taken up a third of AccessKenya’s board seats ahead of its acquisition of the Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed firm. AccessKenya said it has appointed three Dimension executives as its directors with effect from Tuesday.

The three join the existing six directors of the Internet firm, marking the first step by Dimension Data in gaining control of AccessKenya’s strategy and operations.

The shake-up comes as Dimension prepares to close the purchase at Sh14 per share or Sh3 billion and delist it from the Nairobi bourse.

AccessKenya will be delisted once Dimension Data completes the deal in December. This is informed by the UK’s firm’s acquisition policy of 100 per cent control.

“The board of directors is pleased to announce the appointment of (the three) as directors of the company with effect from September 16, 2013,” reads part of a statement signed by AccessKenya’s chairman Daniel Ndonye.

The appointees are Julian Sunker and Nicholas Reed, the chief operating officer and MD of Internet Solution International, a subsidiary of Dimension Data, respectively. Mr Derek Wilcocks, the CEO of Dimension Data’s Middle East and Africa operations, is the third.

They join Mr Ndonye, Titus Naikuni (Kenya Airways CEO), Michael Turner, Jonathan Somen (AccessKenya CEO), David Somen, and Paras Shah on the board.

It was not immediately clear whether some of the existing directors have resigned to accommodate the new members. AccessKenya on Wednesday had not responded to questions from the Business Daily by the time of going to press.

Dimension disclosed it will make little changes to the executive suite of AccessKenya after the deal.

“No significant changes to management and employees of AccessKenya are expected to be made as a direct result of the offer.”

The firm agreed to offer Jonathan a two-year contract running to 2015, cutting short his initial contract that was to run to 2017 and his brother David, who is the executive director in the firm, will serve for one year. Jonathan is a founder of AccessKenya and has been at the helm since inception in 2000.

The offer has received approval from AccessKenya shareholders controlling 89 per cent of the shares. The Somens will earn Sh984.5 million from the 70.32 million shares or 30.28 per cent stake they hold with the CEO pocketing Sh518 million from his 16.97 per cent stake.

At Sh14 a share, the offer price is Sh1 billion higher than AccessKenya’s market value of Sh2.08 billion on May 7 when it suspended trading to allow the conclusion of the deal.