SOUTH AFRICA – The Competition Commission of South Africa has granted investment firm Convergence Partners regulatory approval to acquire Ctrack, vehicle tracking, fleet management, and insurance telematics solutions company.
Convergence Partners, a tech investor in Africa, initially announced in February 2021 that it had entered into an agreement with Inseego to acquire 100% of Ctrack’s operations in Africa and the Middle East.
The Ctrack investment was conducted though the Convergence Partners Digital Infrastructure Fund (CPDIF) and required customary conditions, including approval by the Competition Commission (CompCom), which has now been granted.
Announcing the approval, the CompCom said: “The commission has unconditionally approved the proposed merger, whereby CTSA intends to acquire Ctrack Africa Holdings.
“The commission found that the proposed transaction is unlikely to result in a substantial prevention or lessening of competition in any relevant markets. The commission further found that the proposed transaction does not raise any public interest concerns.”
Ctrack is a telematics software-as-a-service digital infrastructure platform providing fleet management, insurance and weather telematic and asset tracking solutions to its subscribers in Africa and the Middle East.
“The commission found that the proposed transaction is unlikely to result in a substantial prevention or lessening of competition in any relevant markets”
Competition Commission of South Africa
According to Convergence, Ctrack’s Internet of things and data analytics capabilities are a key component of an emerging sector in Africa and are a good fit with CPDIF’s strategy of identifying high-growth market players that build digital infrastructure on the continent.
The Ctrack acquisition is the second major takeover by Convergence Partners in under a year.
Nine months ago, the investment firm took over Vodacom Group’s business unit operations in Nigeria, Zambia and Cote d’Ivoire.
The deal was sealed by Synergy Communications, a subsidiary of the Convergence Partners Communications Infrastructure Fund.
As the chairman, founder and majority shareholder of Convergence Partners, Andile Ngcaba is also involved in significant new communications infrastructure projects across Africa.
These include Seacom, Intelsat New Dawn, FibreCo, and, recently, a new joint venture with Google to invest in CSquared, a broadband infrastructure company headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.
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