Johannesburg - Technology giant IBM would decide whether to sell a stake in its South African subsidiary only when the information and communications technology (ICT) empowerment charter was finalised, it said yesterday.
Jimmy Manyi, IBM's director of black economic empowerment (BEE) and corporate affairs, said: "We will collaborate with the drafters of the charter to arrive at an amicable position. The specifics have not yet been finalised."
The ICT charter empowerment working group hopes the charter will be gazetted by parliament by June.
IBM South Africa is a subsidiary of IBM Corporation, which generates nearly $90 billion (R521 billion) in revenues from assets of $104 billion. IBM South Africa would not disclose its revenue figures and other financial information.
The acquisition of an equity stake in IBM South Africa could cost black investors billions of rands.
Manyi said: "Focus on equity ownership has to be balanced with other, more pressing, national imperatives as articulated in the recent budget speech, such as skills development and job creation, and to continuously improve conditions for multinationals to invest in our economy."
He said the company was finalising its internal empowerment strategy, which would be market driven. The ICT multinationals have been reluctant to sell equity stakes in their local operations but last year they agreed in principle to do so.
The charter is likely to insist that ICT firms sell a 30 percent stake to empowerment firms by 2015.
Multinationals that are still deciding how to address the question of equity ownership include Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems, Dell and T-Systems.
Fujitsu, the world's third-biggest information technology group, is expected to unveil its empowerment partner next week.
German software firm SAP is rumoured to be selling a 25 percent stake of its African subsidiary to black investors. There are also local companies still deciding on selling a third of their business to black investors. They include Datatec and FrontRange.
Black business partners of IBM are benefiting from the company's empowerment business partners programme, which is known as Andisa Partners. The aim of the programme is to increase the number of black IT companies. IBM helps them with training and partners them in projects.
IBM South Africa has increased the number of black executives in top management to 44 percent, and women occupy 17 percent of executive positions. The company said 33 percent percent of its employees were black, and this ratio was growing steadily.
IBM South Africa is led by a South African black person, Mark Harris, and it has been a breeding ground for business leadership in the IT sector and elsewhere. It has produced arivia.kom's chief executive, Zeth Malele, and SAA's chief executive, Khaya Ngqula.
Manyi said: "We have been in an empowerment game long before the empowerment legislation came in and have produced a number of leaders."Our aim is to continue to lead on empowerment issues."