Lonrho Regulatory News (LONR)

7 Jun 2007 07:01

Lonrho PLC07 June 2007 LONRHO Plc ("Lonrho" or "the Company") LONRHO BYTES INTO THE AFRICAN IT INDUSTRY Lonrho is pleased to announce that it has exchanged contracts to acquire 65% ofone of Mozambique's largest commercial Information Technology SolutionProviders, Sociedade Comercial Bytes & Pieces, Limitada ("Bytes & Pieces"),which provides turnkey network solutions and maintenance and support toMozambique businesses, NGO's and Government organisations. Bytes & Piecesfeatured at 53 in the KPMG "Top 100 Companies in Mozambique" survey in 2004. Bytes & Pieces is an authorized distributor of Dell equipment in Mozambique,providing Enterprise Solutions on a Dell hardware platform. The IT company is a Microsoft Certified Partner and was awarded the SystemBuilder Partner of the Year 2006 for East and Southern Africa. Bytes & Pieces isalso an authorized distributor or value added reseller for CISCO Systems, MGEUPS Systems and Legrand networking products. Lonrho is buying the stake in the Bytes & Pieces for $2.34m and will take up twothirds of the board positions. The two founders of Bytes & Pieces, Vijay Thadaniand Veronica Miller, will together retain 35%. Bytes & Pieces recorded profitsbefore tax of US$854,000 in 2006, on revenue of US$8.6 m. The company now plans to expand into the region using the Bytes & Pieces modelwith a distribution division for high quality networking products and also withan Enterprise Solutions implementation division based upon the Dell hardwareplatform. The first countries in which the company will expand include SouthAfrica, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia, Malawi and theDemocratic Republic of Congo. Lonrho Chairman and CEO David Lenigas commented: "As the majority shareholder in Bytes & Pieces, Lonrho intends to further buildon the IT company's success and replicate the business model built up inMozambique to the rest of Africa." "This acquisition is another example of Lonrho's strategy of investing inAfrican infrastructure. We are entering into this field as it services Africanbusiness with high quality IT solutions, an essential tool for helping them togrow and prosper while keeping up with the rest of the world" For further information, please contact: Lonrho Plc +44 (0) 20 7016 5105David Lenigas, Chief Executive +44 (0)7881 825 378Emma Priestley, Executive Director +44 (0)7867 785 177Pelham PRCharles Vivian +44 (0) 20 7743 6672 +44 (0) 7977 297 903Alisdair Haythornthwaite +44 (0) 20 7743 6676 +44 (0) 771 472 1379Collins StewartSimon Atkinson +44 (0) 20 7523 8306 Notes to Editors: About Lonrho Lonrho Plc is an expanding conglomerate that is rapidly growing a successfulbusiness throughout Africa. The Company is listed on the London AIM stockexchange (LONR). Lonrho is strategically focused on the development of businessopportunities in infrastructure, transportation, support services and naturalresources. The Company has over 20,000 shareholders and substantialinstitutional backing to support its mandate to build a profitable business thatplays a fundamental role in the development of the African economy. Since 2006, the Company has invested in or acquired control of: Hotel Cardoso - www.hotelcardoso.co.mz (retained) Nare Diamonds - www.narediamonds.com Brinkley Mining - www.brinkley-mining.com Luba Freeport - www.lubafreeport.com Fly540 - www.fly540.com Norse Air - www.norseair.co.za Swissta Holdings - www.swissta.com Countermine plc - www.countermine.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange