Johannesburg — VODAFONE has at last confirmed that it has made what it describes as a "nonbinding" proposal to acquire a 15% stake in Vodacom for R22,5bn.

This is a generous offer, since it means Vodafone is holding to the price it suggested earlier this year when market caps of cellphone companies were worth more.

Yet some intriguing questions remain, since Vodafone suggests that the deal is conditional, presumably on the unbundling of the remainder of the company out of Telkom.

This requires government support, and could not have come at a more uncomfortable time with the change in administration.

Yet now that the transition is over, the time has come for the administration to lay an egg.

Giving this deal the go-ahead would suggest that the new government is not dogmatic about seeing largely private companies pass into public hands, and that it supports foreign investment.

Not doing so would send the opposite message.

The Bottom Line is edited by Edward West