ByKen Muthomi- Reporter
South Africa, June 30, 2026 – South Africa’s Vodacom Group has completed the acquisition of the Government of Kenya’s 15 percent stake in Safaricom. This was after a block trade involving approximately six billion shares was executed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) at KSh34 per share.The transaction, which was executed on Tuesday, will see the government pocket KSh204 billion from the sale of its shares in the country’s largest telecommunications company, a deal that had faced significant headwinds in recent months.The acquisition, which marks one of the largest share transactions in the history of the Nairobi Securities Exchange, will see Vondacom’s stake at Safaricom increase to 55%.The transaction was made hours after the CMA gave a green light to Vodafone Kenya’s acquisition of the stake by granting an exemption from making a mandatory takeover offer to minority shareholders.The exemption also covered Vodacom’s proposed acquisition of Vodafone International Holdings’ 12.5% stake in Vodafone Kenya. This will raise the company’s ownership of Vodafone Kenya from 87.5% to 100% after an internal restructuring.“VKL is pleased to announce that following the fulfilment of all conditions precedent to the share acquisitions, the Authority granted the Exemption, under Regulation 5(1) of the Capital Markets Act (Take-overs and Mergers) Regulations, 2002,” CMA said in a statement on Monday.The Government first announced plans to reduce its shareholding in Safaricom in May 2025, when National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi said the State intended to sell part of its 35 percent stake in the company as part of efforts to raise revenue in the 2025/26 financial year.The deal will reduce the State’s shareholding in Safaricom from 35 percent to 20 percent. The proceeds from the transaction are intended to provide capital to the National Infrastructure Fund and Sovereign Wealth Fund, which were set up to finance investments in infrastructural projects in the country.The plan sparked widespread opposition from politicians in the opposition camp as well as the public, who argued that the sale of the stake lacked adequate public participation and parliamentary oversight. Recently, the Court of Appeal cleared the way for the transaction after overturning a previous High Court injunction that had frozen the transaction, after the National Treasury argued that delaying the transaction severely disrupted national budget planning and infrastructure financing.
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