Building on last month’s announcement it had boosted its stake in Vodafone Group to 11%, UAE-based e& (formerly Etisalat Group) has now confirmed the acquisition of additional shares in the British telecoms giant to increase its holding to 12%. Although e& stopped short of confirming exactly how much it had paid for its new shares in Vodafone Group, it noted the transaction had been ‘executed at what we believe is an attractive valuation’, while adding that its investment rational remained unchanged, that being: ‘to obtain significant exposure to a global leader, and leverage potential commercial partnership and realise future return on our investment’.
As previously reported by CommsUpdate, back in May 2022 the UAE-based group announced it had acquired 2.766 billion shares in Vodafone Group, equivalent to 9.8% of its issued share capital. e& spent around USD4.4 billion on acquiring that initial stake.