Published on the 02/10/2013 | Written by Newsdesk
The ICT provider continues to realign its business, divesting IT training company Auldhouse through another management buy-out…
Gen-i this week announced that it has signed a sale and purchase agreement to transfer ownership of its training business Auldhouse to Auldhouse executives Melanie Hobcraft, Leigh Richardson and Craig Jones, through a management buyout. Until recently Auldhouse had been too valuable to its parent company to consider a sale, but in recent months Gen-i has undergone a strategic shift that has seen it realign its business units to focus on converged ICT services delivered over high-quality fixed and mobile networks and the cloud.
This shift includes the divestiture of Davanti Consulting, which was bought out by its management back in May this year, the purchase of data centre company Revera, a partnership with SAP, and a strategic review and refocus of the Australian business.
This most recent sale means Auldhouse, which is currently the training partner for many of New Zealand’s major government and corporate organisations, will become the largest privately-owned commercial training business in the country, returning to its pre-Gen-i roots.
With just three decision-makers the heads of a privately-owned company, Auldhouse will likely be able to respond more quickly to market requirements. Melanie Hobcraft, Managing Director of the newly formed Auldhouse Computer Training said she is delighted to have this opportunity to take the business forward under private ownership, saying it is “going to be a very exciting next chapter for the Auldhouse team”.
For now Telecom and Gen-i will continue to leverage Auldhouse services through a Preferred Supplier Agreement.
Auldhouse will also continue to provide IT training and consultancy services to a wide range of New Zealand private and public sector organisations and work with with leading global vendors including Microsoft, VMware, Citrix, Cisco, Red Hat, Pink Elephant ITIL, Symantec, Check Point and SAP.
Gen-i CEO Tim Miles says: “Auldhouse is a great specialist business, developed from the ground up by some very talented people. It makes good sense for them to now own Auldhouse, as they have built it up so successfully.”
