JSE-listed telecoms and IT solutions provider FoneWorx has received undertakings from shareholders holding 52.8% of its stock that they will support its buy-back of the Industrial Development Corporation’s (IDC’s) stake.

In the middle of last month, the group said it would buy back the IDC’s 30% holding and sell it to Isaac and William Kirsh (the Kirsh family), at the same price. FoneWorx will buy, and sell, the shares at 130.81c.

FoneWorx says it has obtained written irrevocable undertakings from shareholders holding 52.8% of its stock, who will vote in favour of the deal. Stripping out the IDC and the Kirsh Family Trust, which cannot vote on the transaction at the general meeting, the undertakings account for 78.5% of FoneWorx’s issued shares.

Entrepreneurs Issie and William Kirsh will join FoneWorx as strategic, value-enhancing shareholders, the listed group says. The family’s investment in FoneWorx aims to create a growth platform, with the intention of aligning FoneWorx with the Kirsh family assets.

Issie Kirsh founded radio station 702 in the early 1980s, and his son, William, flipped the station into what is now Primedia, which was founded in 1994.