Vodafone has reopened talks to boost its 50 per cent stake in Vodacom, the South African mobile operator, as competition in the region looks set to heat up.
The world’s largest mobile phone company by revenue has long coveted control of Vodacom, which it jointly owns with Telkom, South Africa’s dominant telecoms operator. The renewed effort comes six months after the original negotiations to enlarge its holding collapsed.
It emerged yesterday that Vodafone had approached Telkom and offered 18.75 billion rands (£1.24 billion) for a further 12.5 per cent stake. Vodafone has made clear that it would continue to chase a majority share in Vodacom, which has operations in South Africa, Mozambique, Lesotho and Tanzania, ever since Telkom called off talks at the end of