iOCO has struck its second acquisition in four months, agreeing to buy enterprise resource planning specialist Astraia Technology as CEO Rhys Summerton makes good on his promise to return the group to “serial acquirer” status.
The JSE-listed technology group said on Friday it has entered into a binding agreement – signed on Thursday – to acquire 100% of Astraia, a founder-led South African ERP solutions provider specialising in cloud ERP implementations, financial software integration and business process optimisation.
iOCO did not disclose the purchase price, saying the deal is small enough that it is not categorisable under JSE listings requirements and that the announcement was made voluntarily. A performance-based earn-out may become payable if Astraia hits agreed growth targets over the 18 months following the effective date, expected within six weeks.
The structure follows the template Summerton laid out to investors in March, when iOCO announced the R52-million acquisition of the MySky Group – the former EOH’s first deal in eight years. “We’re not making huge bets at this point,” he said at the time. “They’re smaller bets, and they’re based on an element of cash, an element of shares that are issued, and profit warranties or profit earn-outs.”
Summerton told the same investor call that iOCO had evaluated more than 10 acquisition targets ranging from R50-million to R700-million in equity value, and that MySky was a signal of intent rather than an isolated transaction. “We kind of want to see iOCO get to this serial acquirer position again. And if you can really pull that strategy off, that’s when you get a real re-rating in the value of the business,” he said.
Split
“There are not many players that are as well positioned to consolidate the market as iOCO is,” Summerton said in March, citing the group’s strong balance sheet and the tax benefits that would accrue from consolidation. He outlined a capital allocation framework in which free cash flow – targeted at more than R400-million/year – would be split between share buybacks and acquisitions, arguing that deploying half on deals at four to five times earnings could add close to R50-million in Ebitda annually.
Read: iOCO shifts to offence with first acquisition in eight years
In Friday’s announcement, Summerton said: “The strategy of making smaller acquisitions who can access iOCO’s diverse and broad platform allow immediate scalability across products and customers. We see the opportunity to accelerate iOCO’s growth with our acquisition strategy.”
iOCO said the Astraia deal is expected to enhance its infrastructure and managed services capabilities while broadening its access to enterprise customers and vendor ecosystems.
Read: iOCO eyes return to ‘serial acquirer’ status
The acquisition lands two weeks before iOCO’s financial year-end on 31 July. In March, Summerton upgraded the group’s full-year Ebitda guidance to more than R610-million, having already banked R305-million in the first half. — © 2026 NewsCentral Media
