RINGING CHANGES     

Planned Vodafone Egypt acquisition strengthens Vodacom’s Africa vision

By Xolisa Phillip

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Posted on February 7, 2022 12:06

A traffic jam is seen next to a Vodafone mobile phone advertisement featuring Liverpool’s Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah in Cairo © A traffic jam is seen next to a Vodafone mobile phone advertisement featuring Liverpool’s Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah in Cairo, Egypt 2 May 2018.  REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
A traffic jam is seen next to a Vodafone mobile phone advertisement featuring Liverpool’s Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah in Cairo, Egypt 2 May 2018. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

Vodacom Group has received minority shareholder backing to acquire a 55% stake in Vodafone Egypt for $2.7bn. The transaction furthers the group’s ambition of becoming one of Africa’s leading telecos. Dobek Pater, a telecoms analyst at Africa Analysis, tells The Africa Report that the Egyptian market could become to Vodacom what Nigeria has been for rival mobile operator, MTN.

According to Vodacom Group, the transaction is pending approvals from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the National Telecom Regulatory Authority of Egypt and Egypt’s Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA).

At a recent general meeting, the minority shareholders gave the Vodafone Egypt transaction a vote of confidence and supported resolutions for the acquisition to take place.

A total of 99% of votes were cast in favour of the transaction, while 99.58% of votes went in support of the consideration of shares and 99.58% of votes backed a special resolution granting authority to issue consideration shares to sellers.

However, because this is a related-party transaction, Vodafone did not vote at the meeting.

Vodacom Group says the transaction will be funded through the issuance of 242 million new ordinary shares valued at R135.75 ($8.8) per share and $548m in cash. Vodacom aims to conclude the

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