Good move and good news. Closely watching how this unfolds.

Massive profit increase to be announced.. the exchange bar confirms

You must learn to understand @obiero.. What he was implying was stressful times ahead, not losses!!!! Anyway, here we are
Safaricom FY 2016-2017
EBITDA 95.6B
EBT 67.3B
Net income 46.3B
Dividend KES 1

They are issuing some statement on the same ummmh apparently its not true...or its something they considered but when people started talking about it...wakakanyagia...

Hogwash reporting

Nothing to do with with GoK. GoK stake still stands as is just Vodafone and vodacom musical chairs. https://www.bloomberg.co...-billion-safaricom-stake

[quote=Ericsson]Useless reporting from watesh and Wallace Kantai;
It's Vodafone that's transferring its stake to Vodacom SA not GoK

https://www.bloomberg.co...r&utm_medium=social[/quote]


Another move that stunts the growth of Safaricom outside of Kenya. Another opportunity lost by Vodafone (and local shareholders) to make crazy money riding on the goodwill inherent in Safaricom/ Mpesa brands.

I belief "Mpesa" is more acceptable to Africans than other attempts to copycat Mpesa with funny names like "vodacom money".

Vodafone site says Mpesa has 19.9 million users in Africa, Middle East and Europe. What they don't say is that 99% of the users are Kenyans and Kenyans in the diaspora.

Mpesa is Kenyan, is African just like Mercedes is German. You don't see Mercedes marketed as "Nyati" or "Kifaru" in Kenya.

If I was Vodafone, grow Mpesa as a genuine Kenyan/ African business, empower it to make acquisitions in other developing and emerging countries.

Lastly, South Africans don't know shit about growing business in the rest of Africa. If they were unable to replicate Mpesa in their country, how can you trust them to manage a thriving Mpesa brand.

Vodacom to acquire strategic stake in Safaricom for R35 billion

Dear Colleagues,

I have exceptionally exciting news to share with you. In addition to announcing a solid set of financial results this morning, the Vodacom Group has agreed on terms with Vodafone to buy a strategic interest (just under 35%) in Kenya’s market leading telco, Safaricom. To put it into context, the Safaricom transaction is worth R34.6 billion, making it almost five times bigger than the Neotel offer.

Apart from being a household name in Kenya, Safaricom is a high growth, high margin, high cash generation business that operates in a high growth market. Closer cooperation with a quality asset like Safaricom will create further value and mutually beneficial opportunities for both companies including the likes of best practice sharing, replicating Safaricom’s success in M-Pesa in Vodacom’s other territories as well as creating new pan-African enterprise solutions in other east Africa markets.

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, making it a formidable player in financial services on the continent.

From a Vodacom perspective, it offers a rare opportunity to diversify our revenue growth and profitability – all in a single transaction. For example, if we included Safaricom into the Annual Results we issued this morning, it would have proportionally equated to 12.6% of the overall group’s service revenue. It will provide a platform for further growth that we firmly believe will be to the benefit of you, our colleagues, our customers and clients, our shareholders and the communities in which we operate. Specifically, I want to emphasise the benefits from enhanced career prospects, including greater international job opportunities.

As is the case with transactions of this nature, there are certain regulatory and shareholder approvals that we will need to secure before it is finalised. As this is a related-party transaction (we are buying a stake from Vodafone, our parent company) we have made sure that all appropriate governance controls have been implemented. We have negotiated this transaction on an arm’s length basis and will see to it that it is evaluated and executed in the same spirit as we need to ensure the equitable treatment of the interests of minority shareholders in particular.

I am confident that we have negotiated an attractive price for access to an additional 28.1 million customers and one of the most successful and innovative telecoms companies in Africa. It also sets us up to occupy a leading position in sub-Saharan Africa with exposure to one-third of the region’s gross domestic product.

These are exciting times and I promise to keep you updated on the progress we make, as and when we can.

Regards,
Shameel

I dont like this. The way south africans do bizness is totally different from us. I think we should oppose this and ask vodafone to sell to the public/ kenyans.