(Bloomberg) —
Dimension Data, South Africa’s biggest listed technology stock before a 2010 buyout by Japan’s Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., has found evidence of corruption by executives in the 2019 sale of its elaborate head office property in an expensive suburb of Johannesburg.
“A business review by Dimension Data has found that certain executives did not disclose their personal financial interests in the sale of The Campus,” the South African company said in an emailed statement, without naming the executives except for former non-executive director Sonja De Bruyn, who it says is not implicated.
The allegations that stemmed from a whistle-blower, which suggested The Campus was sold below market value so that a separate, but related entity linked to former managers could make a sizable profit, were first reported by TechCentral.
When The Campus was bought and developed almost two decades ago, the sports-mad founders of Dimension Data ensured it had a nine-hole golf course and named the sprawling office park’s buildings after famous sports grounds and events, such as Lords, Twickenham and Le Mans. It was sold to Identity Property Co, a majority Black women-owned company, for an undisclosed sum just over two years ago as part of a Black ownership deal.
Company Law
“The executives’ failure to disclose their personal financial interest in the transaction as required under the Companies Act could affect the validity of the transaction,” Dimension Data said, without making clear whether or not it would be pursuing legal action.
NTT, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment, has appointed international law firm Herbert Smith Freehills to investigate the matter, according to TechCentral.
The probe comes seven months after Jeremy Ord, who co-founded Dimension Data in the 1980s, left the company along with other managers after not being able to convince NTT to re-list the company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange as part of a management buyout and Black shareholding deal, TechCentral reported in June.
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