South Africa's third-biggest IT company, Datatec Ltd, has said it will pay up to $25.9 million for Australia's CNI Group (Pty) Ltd to expand its network services activities in Asia. The acquisition represents the next step in Datatec's strategy of creating a world-wide network-based systems integration group under the company's global Logical brand. CNI is one of Australia's leading network system integration businesses with headquarters in Melbourne and offices in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide. Working alongside companies such as Compaq, IBM, Microsoft and Lotus, its customer base includes Schweppes, SmithKline Beecham, Mobil Oil, Walt Disney and Kraft. In its interim results published last week Datatec posted another strong set of results. Turnover and operating profit were up significantly at 405 per cent and 513 per cent respectively on the corresponding period last year. Datatec has a strong presence in the UK with a number of companies including Logical Networks plc, Network SI and Bluepoint under its corporate umbrella. ®