The value of the deal has not been disclosed. J&J will contribute to UUNet SA by working actively at an operational level as well as the board level. The agreement is subject to certain customary closing conditions.

Dan Crawford, MCI president of international and wholesale, says: "This is a significant achievement for our business in SA. While it enables us to better compete in all segments of business, it also ensures that UUNet SA is in line with the BEE requirements consistent with the government's transformation objectives."

Acting country manager of UUNet SA, Angela Gahagan, says that this decision is not all about complying with BEE regulations, but largely due to growing the business locally. She adds that this is truly not a 'tick-box' deal in terms of adhering to the DTI Code of Good Practice or the BEE Charter. "We looked at many criteria in order to see what would be most beneficial to expand our market reach."

"This agreement will strengthen the company's market presence, transformation commitment and ability to tender for public and private sector business," says Gahagan.

Crawford says that MCI saw that SA was a good and growing market to be in, and decided to invest more locally. In order to expand on that the company then started looking at opportunities to would make it more competitive in this region and, adds Crawford, partnering with J&J gave us that opportunity. "The fact that J&J also has other investments in SA, is BEE qualified, and is also geared towards increased business opportunities in the rest of Africa, made us select it as a viable partner," he says.