By PETER GRIFFIN
Just 18 months after merging to form an IT company serving the South Pacific, Certus Consulting and Toronto Exchange-listed Datec Group are going their separate ways, with Certus management leading a buy-out of Datec's 66 per cent stake in the consulting business.
Key members of Certus' management team and a private investment company have paid Datec $490,000 for its share in Certus, which has built a strong business specialising in IBM hardware and software platforms.
Datec and Certus had joined forces with high hopes for an IT services company that would provide computer services to companies operating locally and in Datec's stronghold of the Pacific Islands.
The merger brought Datec's 400 staff and Certus Consulting's 32 New Zealand workers together and created a New Zealand-based business with revenue of about $80 million.
But Certus has found more lucrative business in Asia.
Founder and managing director Greg Woolley said the company was winning valuable business in hosting IT infrastructure and software in data centres for Asian companies.
An office was to be opened in Singapore to serve those customers.
"The plan was to work on hardware and software but, in the past 12 to 15 months, the opportunity in Asia has overtaken that," said Woolley.
"We needed a substantial capital base and [Datec] weren't in a position to provide it."
A statement from Datec to the Toronto Exchange referred to "differences between Datec and the minority shareholders of Certus regarding the future direction of Certus" as the reason for the sale.
Speaking from Fiji, Datec managing director Michael Ah Koy said there were no hard feelings about the split.
Certus would still contract to Datec on IT projects and Datec would continue to be based in Auckland.
"Greg's consortium had a right to buy back our shares after a certain period of time and they have," said Ah Koy.
Certus is also ending its exclusive relationship with IBM and will increasingly look to work with other vendors, in particular e-business infrastructure software company BEA Systems.
"We'll probably look at working with Microsoft as well," said Woolley.
Certus was responsible for about 70 per cent of IBM software sold through the IT partner channel.
But IBM's software business is understood to have softened considerably this year.
Woolley said some opportunities for growth had been "maxed out" but most of the company's revenue would continue to come from the local market for some time.
Certus, Datec come to end of road
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