Tech Pacific changes hands

Distribution powerhouse Tech-Pacific has changed hands with Dutch owners Hagemeyer selling off 59 percent stake to CVC Inc, retaining 31 percent. The balance 10 percent is with the Tech Pacific management.

CVC was originally a Citibank venture (Citibank Venture Capital) until it was bought over by CVC management. Hagemeyer, a Dutch distribution group, acquired Tech Pacific in 1997.

The $ 1.7 billion Tech Pacific Group, which has its beginnings in 1981 in a company called Imagineering Australia, is a broad-based distributor of IT products. It operates in seven countries, including India, where it is the leading IT distribution company, winning the Dataquest Top IT Distributor award for several years now.

The Tech Pacific Group's Sydney, Australia-based President and CEO is Shailendra N Gupta, who was earlier head of Tech Pacific India. Tech Pacific India's CEO is K Jaishankar. The group has 1,550 employees in seven countries--Australia, India, Singapore, China, New Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines.

Adds DQW News Bureau: The Indian channel community and vendors are not going to be affected by the new ownership of Tech Pacific by CVC. When contacted, Jaishankar stated, "This ownership by CVC is purely a financial investment. There will be no changes in the management team in India and the operations would continue in the same manner. CVC would be having just management equity participation and would not be intervening in the business operations. In fact, such an investment is good for Tech Pac in the long run as it helps us improve our business."

Vendors of products being distributed by Tech Pac don't seem to be affected, as Sanjeev Keskar, Country Manager, AMD, said, "Business is as usual as there are no changes announced. However, the distributor has made communication on this new development."

On the other hand, Joergen Jakobson, VP (Business PC Unit) - Asia Pacific & Japan, HP had still not received any sort of notification from Tech Pacific. "I have read about the change in ownership in newspapers but no formal communication has been made as yet."

Meanwhile, channel partners are positive on this new change. "Such a financial investment is good for the company. At the same time, this definitely would not make a difference to its Indian operations," said Jayesh Sheth, MD of Mumbai-based Great World.

Cyber News Service