Jens Montanana's Datatec makes fourth acquisition of the year with New Mexico deal

Datatec has bought a fourth company since January, continuing an acquisition run that has concentrated almost entirely on cybersecurity.

Logicalis USA, the group's American services subsidiary, acquired Loial, a technology solutions provider based in New Mexico specialising in cybersecurity and managed services. The transaction took effect at the end of July and was announced to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Monday. No purchase price was disclosed.

The deal gives Logicalis USA a permanent location in New Mexico and expands its team across the American Southwest.

Loial is an established Splunk partner, meaning it implements and manages deployments of the data platform widely used by large organisations to monitor security events across their networks. Its customers span energy, utilities, government and healthcare, sectors where regulatory requirements around data protection and incident reporting have tightened considerably.

Jens Montanana, who founded Datatec and remains its chief executive, framed the purchase around customer relationships rather than technology.

"Loial brings deep cybersecurity expertise and long-standing customer relationships across multiple vertical markets and extends Logicalis USA's presence into New Mexico, an important market that supports the division's long-term growth strategy," he said.

The pattern across the year is consistent.

In late January, Datatec acquired Real Security, a value-added cybersecurity distributor headquartered in Maribor, Slovenia, through its Westcon-Comstor distribution arm. That gave Westcon-Comstor a foothold in the Balkans, a region where it had not previously operated directly.

Days later, in early February, Logicalis USA bought 100% of Maple Woods Enterprises. Its principal product, Overwatch, is a cybersecurity and compliance programme built originally to meet the standards required of contractors serving the United States defence industry. Datatec said at the time that the acquisition added compliance expertise to its managed services framework and created a platform for expansion into selected American sectors.

In March, Logicalis Germany acquired NetworkedAssets, a specialist in software development, network automation and observability solutions, establishing a Datatec presence in Poland.

Three of the four transactions were in cybersecurity. All four extended the group's geographic reach into markets where it previously had limited or no direct presence: Slovenia and the Balkans, Poland, and now New Mexico.

The strategy reflects where corporate technology spending has moved. Distribution and infrastructure work carries thin margins and is exposed to hardware cycles. Security operations, compliance and managed detection generate recurring revenue under multi-year contracts, and clients rarely switch providers once systems are embedded.

Buying established firms with existing customer books is the fastest route into that business, because the relationships take years to build from nothing.

Datatec has been arranging the balance sheet to support it. In June the group concluded a R7 billion transaction to finance the growth of Westcon-Comstor, its distribution division.

The company operates through three principal businesses. Westcon-Comstor distributes technology products across more than 70 countries. Logicalis provides IT services and managed services to enterprise and public sector clients. Analysys Mason is a telecommunications and media consultancy.

Montanana founded Datatec in 1986 and has led it since. The company is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and generates the overwhelming majority of its revenue outside South Africa, principally in North America and Europe, which makes it one of the few JSE-listed businesses whose performance is largely detached from the domestic economy.

He told investors in May that he was optimistic about the long-term benefits of the group's investment in artificial intelligence.

Datatec has not disclosed what it paid for any of the four companies acquired this year, or what they contribute in revenue.