Datatec's R7.05bn special dividend could pay its founder R1.3bn

Datatec is preparing to return R7.05 billion to shareholders, and no individual stands to benefit more than founder and chief executive Jens Montanana.

The JSE-listed technology group has declared a special distribution of 2,900 cents, or R29, per share following a transaction involving its Westcon International subsidiary and US investment firm General Atlantic.

Datatec's own shareholder register shows Montanana holding 44,937,489 shares, equal to 19.01% of the company at the end of February 2026. At R29 per share, that holding is worth about R1.303 billion under the special distribution before tax, assuming he elects to receive cash rather than additional shares.

The payout is unusually large even by Datatec's standards. The company's normal FY2026 distributions totalled 400 cents per share across its interim and final payments. The new special distribution is more than seven times that amount on a per-share basis.

The money comes from Westcon

The capital return follows a deal between Westcon International and General Atlantic.

Under the transaction, General Atlantic provided Westcon with a $375 million loan, while also paying $25 million for a 5% equity stake in the business. The loan proceeds were used to repay most of an existing $450 million shareholder loan owed by Westcon to Datatec.

That cash then flowed back to the parent company, giving Datatec the capacity to return billions to shareholders rather than leaving the capital locked inside the subsidiary structure.

The arrangement is also a useful signal about how investors currently value technology distribution and infrastructure businesses. Westcon sits in the less glamorous part of the technology economy, networking, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure and channel distribution, but those businesses remain central to the physical and commercial plumbing of enterprise IT.

Datatec itself now operates in more than 50 countries through Westcon and Logicalis, with more than 11,000 employees. Its FY2026 results show adjusted EBITDA of $290.1 million and gross profit of $997.8 million.

Montanana may not take the cash

The R1.3 billion headline needs one important qualification: Montanana has historically favoured scrip distributions over cash.

Datatec allows shareholders to elect to receive ordinary shares instead of cash. Recent disclosures show Montanana's stake increasing from 18.04% at the end of February 2025 to 19.01% a year later, consistent with a pattern of compounding his ownership rather than simply extracting cash.

That means the special distribution could increase his stake further instead of producing a single R1.3 billion cash payment.

Either way, the economic value is real. The founder owns close to one-fifth of the company, so a capital return of this size naturally concentrates a large amount of value in his hands.

It also arrives after a strong year for Datatec. Profit after tax for the year ended February 2026 rose to about R1.78 billion from roughly R1.12 billion a year earlier, according to the company's reported results.

For ordinary shareholders, the attraction is obvious: a business that has spent years reshaping its portfolio is now converting part of that value into a substantial return of capital.

For Montanana, who founded Datatec in 1986 and has remained deeply tied to the company for four decades, the payout is a reminder of how valuable a large founder stake can become when a listed technology group finally unlocks cash from one of its core assets.