Vodacom situation to become clear in New Year

The UK’s Vodafone group says it expects to know more about the future of its South African cellular operation Vodacom within the next two months. Vodafone’s partner in Vodacom, Telkom South Africa, is currently conducting a review into its mobile operations and this is expected to last until early 2008, Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin said on a conference call to discuss the firm’s interim results. It has been rumoured that Telkom will opt to offload part of its 50% stake in Vodacom, with the remainder offered in a public listing; Vodafone has said that it would be interested in upping its own stake if the price was right. As well as being South Africa’s largest cellco, Vodacom has operations in markets such as Tanzania, DRC Congo, Mozambique and Lesotho.