Financial services and investment firm ASI Financial Services has acquired a majority stake in Johannesburg-based managed information and communications technology (ICT) provider Conekt Group, which will now trade as ASI Connect.

The partnership combines Conekt's more than 30 years of enterprise managed services expertise with ASI's capital resources, national platform and transformation credentials.

Existing clients will receive services from the same trusted teams and contacts and all service commitments remain in place, but are now supported by broader capability and the resources to scale.

This provides clients with a single accountable partner across the full technology estate, including infrastructure and servers, corporate and hybrid cloud, connectivity, workplace support, hardware supply and cybersecurity, with 24/7 monitoring and response.

Active governance also underpins ASI Connect's entire ecosystem. Compliance obligation, particularly Protection of Personal Information Act requirements, rarely survive when fragmented across four different suppliers and matching siloed records.

To solve this, ASI Connect delivers unified, ISO 27001-certified security, service desk and cloud operations under strict board-level oversight.

The resulting audit-ready reporting allows regulated organisations to explicitly prove operational control, ASI says.

“The Conekt Group delivers deep operational expertise, backed by three decades of enterprise relationships, a 24/7 security operations centre and robust capabilities across managed services, business continuity, cloud and infrastructure.

“ASI injects the market scale, strategic transformation framework and balance sheet strength required to rapidly accelerate and expand these capabilities to a broader client base.

“This partnership combines deep technical experience with a shared commitment to client success, security and meaningful transformation. Together, we have the opportunity to build a substantial South African ICT platform that delivers commercial value and lasting impact,” says ASI partner relations executive Nicholas Govender.

“Clients do not buy technology. They buy the confidence that it will hold through a breach attempt, an audit and a loadshedding week. For our clients, this partnership changes the reach and resilience available to them, with the same team and the same accountability, and the platform, governance discipline and transformation credentials of the ASI Group behind it,” says Conekt Group CEO Trevane Paul.

The investment also strengthens the procurement position of clients who must demonstrate genuine transformation in their supply chain. ASI's Level 1 broad-based black economic empowerment status carries 135% procurement recognition verified and this now applies across the full ICT stack rather than a portion of it, ASI says.