Dimension Data soars after £2bn cash offer from Japan's NTT

After all the various bits of takeover speculation over the past few days, a real deal has emerged as Japan's Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corporation (NTT from now on) has agreed to pay £2.1bn in cash for Dimension Data, the London listed but South Africa-based IT group.

NTT is offering 120p a share, and will fund the acquisition with a mixture of its own cash resources and new loan facilities. The deal will give NTT - the largest telecoms business in Japan - access to Dimension Data's African markets, and the companies said it was a landmark transaction which represented "a vote of confidence in South Africa and in Dimension Data." Japanese companies have been slow to enter African, unlike some of their Asian rivals, but NTT has obviously decided it is time to act.

In the market Dimension Data's shares have jumped 19p higher to 120.6p.