May 20. 2015. Vodafone Fiji Limited today announced 100% acquisition of Fiji’s leading IT company, Datec Fiji Limited. Vodafone Fiji Board Chairman Mr Ajith Kodagoda said, ”the acquisition is strategically aligned to Vodafone Fiji’s future growth objectives and in line with strengthening Vodafone’s position as the market leader to enhance service delivery to its clients. With Datec’s acquisition, Vodafone will be uniquely positioned to offer end-to-end ICT solutions, especially for the enterprise and business segment”, said Mr Kodagoda. “Whether it is hardware, software, peripherals or ICT solutions, Vodafone will now be equipped to provide one stop shop offering”.
The Chairman further emphasised that the Datec takeover is good news for FNPF members, – both present and the future. Vodafone Fiji is now 100% locally owned entity and all dividends accruing from this acquisition shall be retained locally and reinvested into the Fijian economy.
Mr Michael Ah Koy, Chairman of Datec said “ The convergence of IT and telephony is a global technological certainty, so it made sense that Datec’s future as Fiji’s leading IT company be aligned with that of Fiji’s leading communications provider, Vodafone. Datec is over 25 years old, and has been proudly built on home grown Fijian talent. It is even more fitting that its new owners be Vodafone and its shareholders ATH and FNPF, essentially the workers of Fiji. The formation of ATH set Fiji on the path of unprecedented development of the telecommunications sector, with all of its profits retained in Fiji now with 100% local shareholding. I am extremely proud of Datec as a company and that its ownership has been retained in Fiji for the next phase of its development.”
With the advent of cloud based solutions, many telecommunications companies around the world are either acquiring IT companies or building such capacity in-house to offer cloud based services. Today is no longer about delivering voice or data solutions only. In fact, many of our customers now expect the service provider to deliver end-to-end solutions. Vodafone CEO, Mr Pradeep Lal said, “building such capability is essential in readiness for the next wave of technological evolution which primarily will be driven by “Internet of Things” and transition to cloudbased solutions.
Vodafone will now have unparalleled capabilities to bring together the best of ICT solutions and managed services. This combination is expected to create access to an expanded addressable market with improved and sustainable long term growth opportunities.
Vodafone which is Fiji’s premier mobile operator and market leader has been at the forefront of introducing new technologies and many first to market products. Last year Vodafone was awarded the Global Performance Excellence Award, which is the highest accolade for recognition of quality in all aspects of business. Recently Vodafone Fiji has been ranked as the fastest 4G Network in the Asia Pacific region ahead of operators such as Telstra, Optus and M1 by Ookla – a popular online speed testing site.
Mr Lal said that Datec will continue to operate independently and all customer and supplier relationships, contracts and commitments remain intact. All existing services and business units will continue to operate as business as usual. However, over the next few months, Datec operations will be reviewed and aligned to ensure it is in a position to provide and support future technologies and is able to leverage Vodafone’s strength in providing connectivity and cloud based solutions. We will introduce Vodafone’s strength in areas such as quality, time to market, continuous improvement, development of skills, efficient and lean operations that are needed to compete effectively and provide cost effective solutions to our customers.
VODAFONE FIJI