Johannesburg – March 6, 2018 – CMC Networks (CMC) today announced that Rakesh Bhasin has been appointed as Chairman of CMC. Bhasin is an internationally renowned telecommunications executive and has been a Non-Executive Director of CMC since June 2017.
Bhasin’s appointment follows Grant Walker’s decision to step down as Chairman on the first of March. Bhasin served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Colt Group SA until 2015. He led Colt for nine years where he restructured the business, launched new service offerings, eliminated regional silos and expanded the business globally. Under his leadership, Colt enhanced profitability and began generating significant positive cash flow.
Before joining Colt, Bhasin acted as president and chief executive at KVH, an integrated data centre and communications services business in Asia, and prior to that he held positions at AT&T and Japan Telecom Company Limited for approximately 13 years. In addition to his professional career, Bhasin is a private investor and is involved in a number of companies across multiple sectors in the capacity of a non-executive director.
“We are delighted to have Rakesh join CMC as the new Chairman,” commented Eric Kump, Managing Director of The Carlyle Group, CMC’s Majority Shareholder. “CMC has always provided its customers with excellent service, offering them world class connectivity in geographies that present operational challenges. Building on this foundation, Rakesh’s global experience in the Telecoms sector and his deep network will help CMC broaden its service offering and enter new geographies, as he has done in his previous roles at Colt and AT&T. Rakesh’s involvement in the business has already resulted in substantial contract wins and improvements to CMC.”
“CMC is a hidden jewel of telecom industry and has a great platform to serve the networking needs of multinational customers in Africa and the Middle East,” added Bhasin. “I am excited to continue to work with Carlyle and the management team to meet evolving needs of our customers and exponentially grow this business.”
For more information on CMC Networks, please visit www.cmcnetworks.net.
About CMC
Founded in 1989, CMC has the largest managed connectivity network in Africa, with a comprehensive office footprint spanning some 70 countries in Africa and the Middle East, and plans to further extend into Asia and South America. Through its unique ability to provide services in operationally challenging regions of Africa and the Middle East, while providing world class reliability and latency standards, CMC serves over 50 global telecommunications carriers, including 12 out of 14 of the largest ones. These carriers use CMC to provide fast, reliable data and internet connections to global enterprises operating in Africa and the Middle East.
About The Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) is a global alternative asset manager with $195 billion of assets under management across 317 investment vehicles as of December 31, 2017. Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, many of whom are public pensions. Carlyle invests across four segments – Corporate Private Equity, Real Assets, Global Credit and Investment Solutions – in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South America. Carlyle has expertise in various industries, including: aerospace, defense & government services, consumer & retail, energy & power, financial services, healthcare, industrial, infrastructure, real estate, technology & business services, telecommunications & media and transportation. The Carlyle Group employs more than 1,600 people in 31 offices across six continents.
Web: www.carlyle.com Videos: www.youtube.com/onecarlyle Tweets: www.twitter.com/onecarlyle Podcasts: www.carlyle.com/about-carlyle/market-commentary
About Carlyle Sub-Sahara Africa Fund (SSA)
Established in 2012 the Carlyle Sub-Saharan Africa Fund and its affiliates, with $698 million of committed capital, have invested over $300 million to date across a variety of industries, including energy, financial services, TMT, retail, logistics and mining services, and across a variety of geographies, including South Africa, Nigeria, Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Southern Africa. The SSA fund makes buyout and growth capital investments in private and public companies from offices in Johannesburg, South Africa and Lagos, Nigeria.
For more information please contact:
Brenda Knowles
media@cmcnetworks.net
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