HKBN Announces Proposed Acquisition of JOS

HONG KONG, Aug. 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- HKBN Ltd. ("HKBN" or the "Group"; SEHK stock code: 1310) today announced that it has entered into a Share Purchase Agreement with JTH (BVI) Limited ("JTH"), pursuant to which HKBN, through its wholly owned subsidiary, has agreed to purchase JTH's entire equity interest in Jardine OneSolution Holdings (C.I.) Limited ("JOS") and its subsidiaries, Adura Hong Kong and Adura Cyber Security, for a cash consideration of US$50 million.

JOS, as a leading system integrator, IT solutions provider and technology consultant in Asia, is highly complementary to HKBN business. The proposed acquisition of JOS will reinforce HKBN's position in the system integration and connectivity space, expanding its presence in the enterprise solutions market post-integration with WTT. This transaction will also provide substantial value creation opportunities through revenue synergies from scale efficiencies and cross-selling to both entities' broad customer bases.

JOS has over 60 years of history and over 2,000 technology professionals across Asia, of whom 1,100 are in Hong Kong. JOS offers leading expertise in IT infrastructure and network services, as well as digital and security solutions, enabling over 10,000 customers from the public and private sectors to take advantage of the latest information and communication technologies ("ICT").

"Since the completion of our WTT combination on 30 April 2019, we have met with around 100 of our top enterprise customers to learn about their opportunities and pain points. By a mile, the most common desire was for a one-stop-shop ICT solutions partner, rather than separate IT, telecom and other vendors.  As such, we listened and actioned accordingly with the acquisition of JOS, such that we are now positioned to offer a single point of contact to handle all our customer's growing ICT needs," said Billy Yeung, Co-Owner and CEO -- Enterprise Solutions.

"We also look forward to welcoming the JOS management team to our elite sports team by opening our unique Co-Ownership alignment to them," added NiQ Lai, Co-Owner and Group CEO.   

Eric van der Hoeven, Chief Executive of JTH Group said, "Technology and digitisation developments have accelerated in the past few years, transforming the IT industry into a fast-moving and highly specialised business sector. Based on the recent success and growth path of JOS and Adura, we believe this is the right time for these two businesses to become part of a technology-focused organisation with strong expertise and relationships in the technology services sector. We are proud of the role we have played in growing and nurturing both businesses over the years, and very pleased to have found such a good fit as HKBN."  

The transaction, expected to close by 4Q 2019, is subject to the approval of HKBN shareholders and the satisfaction of other conditions. For further details of the transaction, please refer to the announcement: https://reg.hkbn.net/WwwCMS/upload/pdf/en/20190823_JOS_acqusition_Eng.pdf

About HKBN Ltd.

HKBN Ltd. (SEHK Stock Code: 1310, together with its subsidiaries, "HKBN" or the "Group") is an investment holding company. The Group is a leading information and communications technology ("ICT") services provider in Hong Kong, offering a comprehensive range of premier ICT services to both the enterprise and residential markets, including broadband, data connectivity, managed Wi-Fi, mobile, voice communications, data centre facilities, business continuity services, information security, system integration and various cloud solutions. HKBN owns extensive fibre networks in Hong Kong, which cover 2.3 million residential homes, and over 7,000 commercial buildings and facilities. HKBN embraces "Make our Hong Kong a Better Place to Live" as its core purpose, and takes great pride in developing its Talents into a competitive advantage. The Group is managed by Co-Owners (supervisory and management level Talents in the Group) who have invested their own savings to buy shares of HKBN Ltd.

SOURCE HKBN Ltd.