South Africa's largest channel company is changing its name from PQ Holdings (Persetel Q Data Holdings) to Comparex Holdings. The change will take place officially on November 16 and has been initiated to reflect the international flavour of the group's activities, the company said. PQ Holdings was created just over a year ago through the merger of Persetel and Q data. In 1996, Persetel acquired 40 per cent of Hitachi's European distributor Comparex Informationsysteme GmbH, until then owned totally by German chemicals giant BASF. In 1997, the company acquired majority positions in Telemation and Kryptokom (Germany), Comtech (Belgium and Luxembourg), Nomea (France) and Datelec (Switzerland). In 1998, PQ PQ Holdings acquired the European operations of US-based Anixter Communications Inc (ACI), adding further to its networking capabilities in Europe. ACI had operation in the UK, Holland, Italy, Ireland, Spain and Sweden. PQ Holdings also took control of Comparex by increasing its stake from 40 per cent to 75 per cent It's this that has enabled the company to fall behind the Comparex brand, the company said. Comparex Holdings will receive secondary listing on the London and Frankfurt stock exchanges next year. ®