The Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s (JSE) announced the listing of Bytes Technology to its main Board, making it the fifth company to list this year outside of Exchange Traded Products (ETPs).
Bytes Technology operates mainly within South Africa; however, it has some operations in several other African countries and the United Kingdom. This is a secondary listing for the Group under the software and computers classification. This followed an announcement by Altron on 2 April 2020, that it had resolved to demerge and separately list its UK business (Bytes) on the London Stock Exchange and JSE to unlock value for Altron shareholders.
Neil Murphy, Chief Executive Officer, Bytes: “It gives us great pleasure to welcome our new shareholders to the business. We believe listing as a standalone group gives us a tremendous platform to deliver on the strong growth opportunities we see in our markets. We are delighted by the level of interest shown by potential investors and are looking forward to this exciting next stage for Bytes Technology Group.”
Bytes Technology Group, formerly a subsidiary of Allied Electronics Corporation (Altron), is one of the UK’s leading providers of IT software offerings and solutions, with a focus on cloud and security products. The company has a diverse range of blue-chip customers with 4,929 customers across the private and public sectors. The Group has a particularly strong track record of working with Microsoft and is one of Microsoft’s largest partners in the UK by revenue. Bytes has experienced strong growth between FY10 and FY20, gross profit increased from £12.6m to £79.2m, representing a CAGR of 20%.
Thato Matsafu, Head of Primary Markets, JSE: “The JSE is excited to welcome Bytes Technology Group onto the Main Board of the leading bourse on the continent. This is an incredible opportunity that allows South African investors to be a part of the innovative and growing technology space. We wish the Group tremendous success in the next chapter of their growth journey.”
Bytes Technology Group will fall within the Software and Computers FTSE classification. The company has issued 238 million ordinary shares at £0.01 each. The listing of Bytes Technology Group brings the number of listed companies on the JSE to 341 with an overall Market Cap of over R18 Trillion.