Vodacom to acquire R35 billion stake in Kenya’s Safaricom
Vodacom Group announces today that it has agreed terms to acquire a strategic stake in Kenya’s Safaricom held by Vodafone Group, which currently owns 65% of Vodacom.
Vodacom will fund the acquisition of a 34.94% stake in Safaricom by issuing 226.8 million new ordinary shares.
The transaction is set to further enhance Vodacom as a leading African mobile communication company.
Based on Friday’s JSE closing price of R152.49 per Vodacom share, this values the proposed transaction at R34.6 billion.
Shameel Joosub, CEO of Vodacom Group, said: “This is an exciting occasion for Vodacom and a unique opportunity to diversify our revenue growth and profitability. In addition to producing mutually beneficial opportunities for growth, it will create further incremental value through the close cooperation between the two businesses, particularly in driving M-Pesa adoption across our operations.”
Safaricom’s leading mobile money platform, M-Pesa, is an important driver of Kenyan economic growth, providing essential financial services to over 19 million customers.
The proposed transaction will improve Vodacom Group’s presence in East Africa, jointly increasing the company’s growth in financial services customers to 32 million.
Vodacom’s interest in Safaricom proportionally equates to approximately 12.6% of the Group’s reported service revenue as announced in its latest year end results.
Read: Vodacom profit boosted by 3 million new customers in SA
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