Datatec will merge its SA operations with African Legend Technologies, the IT company said on Tuesday.

According to Datatec, the merger would create an R800-million per year outfit, made up of R500-million from Datatec contributions, and R300-million from African Legend.

The new entity will be known as African Legend Indigo, of which Datatec will hold 55 percent, while African Legend will hold 45 percent.

"We are excited about this deal on a number of levels," said Jens Montanana, CEO of Datatec. He added the merger will create a truly black empowered outfit.

“The merger will create an IT company that is 45 percent black owned, which is significantly more than the ICT Charter calls for, and we expect it to add significant shareholder value by providing us with the critical mass we need to take the new business to the next level and to consistently achieve the sort of growth recorded by Datatec's other operations in the US, the UK and Europe over the past 12 to 18 months," he said.

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