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STUDY ABROAD OPTIONS
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AFFINITY -THE COMPANY BEHIND SOUTH AFRICA’S NEWSET FREE ISP Everyone knows that Affinity Internet Holdings is behind ABSA’s free ISP but few seem to know much about company. Affinity Internet Holdings is a London Stock Exchange listed company with a 1999 turnover of US$5.5 million. It has four wholly owned subsidiaries and one jointly owned subsidiary: - Virtual Internet Provider Ltd, a branded Internet services provider - Hurricaneseye Ltd, a convergent billing company (co-owned with UK utility company Powergen) - EGO Maniacs.net Ltd, the online entertainment company - mytaxi Ltd, the content and commerce company -Sonnet Internet Ltd, bespoke ISP specialists for the SME and SoHo markets Clients include Tiny Computers, Compaq, PowerGen, Royal Bank of Scotland, Chrysalis and Toys R Us. Itssolutions partners include: ICL, Cisco Systems, and ClientLogic. Other key relationships include Cable & Wireless, British Telecom, Vodafone UK, Synigence plc and erecruitment.com. It has operations in Europe and Australia as well as Africa. In February it signed an agreement with Click Things Inc, a New York-based software company that specialises in server-based collaborative commerce and content management solutions. As part of this agreement it is distributor for this software in Africa. So how does it market its service? "Affinity Internet Holdings makes it easy to be an Internet player. The company’s Virtual Internet Provider (VIP) subsidiary offers a virtual ISP service, supplying Internet access under the brand names of clients, thus saving them the expense of building ISP operations. It provides access to some 1.5 million Internet users for its customers, which include Internet companies and other businesses and affinity groups". Affinity’s CEO Wayne Lochner sees its advantage in being able to offer a full ISP service to brands or companies with strong customer loyalties and in the UK it maintains that it beats BT to this business 50% of the time. "The advantage that we have over the way that traditional service providers operate is that we offer services through established brand names, which means that the cost of customer acquisition is significantly lower, and much more robust. Churn is also much lower, because if I’m actually a customer of the Royal Bank of Scotland and I’m accessing the Internet through the Royal Bank of Scotland, why would I change? The same applies with Prudential and Toys R Us, and all of our other clients. People need to have that principal reason to go onto the Net. If you’re using an organisation to access the Net with whom you have no particular brand loyalty to, you’re more likely to switch supplier. However, because of our brand names, because of those core ‘affinities’, our clients are more likely to stay." His view of the future? "I think wireless technology and the handheld devices will be the dominant future. And leading on from that, I think the advancements that are being made in narrow cast - the ability to get more information down smaller bandwidths - is going to be more dominant in the market. In terms of value added services, content, e-commerce and similar, content seems to be losing its value, because it is so readily available ... Functionality is what the users are looking for. This comes down to this factor, this key driver issue. ... Entertainment, quick access to specific information, easy and cost-effective communication: these sorts of products will be the future". The implications for the current struggle between ABSA and M-Web would seem to be as follows: - Affinity may have deeper pockets than many in South Africa have anticipated. - Its current strategy may be one of acquiring market share that it can then exploit with its partners. Without the wholesaling income available in the UK, it’s difficult to see how it will remain free. VODAFONE EGYPT GEARS UP FOR IPO Vodafone Egypt, the country’s privately owned mobile operator has picked six contenders to advise on its IPO. They include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JP Morgan Chase & Co. It has 1.15 to 1.2 million subscribers, but declined to disclose profitability or sales figures. Rival mobile phone operator Egyptian Company for Mobile Services (MobiNil) has "close to 1.4 million" active subscribers. MobiNil’s audited results released to Reuters showed it more than doubled net profit to 286.21 million Egyptian pounds ($73.6 million) for 2000, or 2.86 pounds per share. (source: Zawya ) MAROC TELECOM WINS CONTROLLING STAKE IN MAURETANIA’S TELCO Maroc Telecom has been named as preliminary winner of an international tender offer for a 54% stake in Mauritel, the national telecommunications operator in Mauritania. Maroc Telecom submitted a US$48m bid for the stake. SECOND ARCHWAY TECH FUND LAUNCHED Archway Venture Partners has launched Archway 2, a second technology venture capital fund that has initial capital commitments of R145 million. (source: http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/business/2001/0103150729.asp) PRISM BUYS VERIFONE SOUTH AFRICA JSE-listed secure electronic transaction technology and security group, Prism Holdings, has acquired VeriFone South Africa, a division of Hewlett-Packard Company and a leading global provider of secure electronic-payment solutions for financial institutions, merchants and consumers, for an undisclosed amount. (source: Boot http://www.boot.co.za/news/mar01/prism19.htm ) KAGISO THROWS IN THE TOWEL ON INTERNET Empowerment media Kagiso Media gave its fledgling internet arm, Broadcast Interactive Group (BIG), the chop this week, leaving 20 staff, including SA online media pioneer Irwin Manoim, out of a job. Kagiso Media chief executive Roger Jardine, announcing Kagiso’s interim results, said that the group’s initiative to launch BIG, an internet publishing and content management business, had not met expectations. (Source: Woza http://www.woza.co.za/news00/mar01/big16.htm)
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This page last updated on January 28 2004.
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