Efem Nkanga With Agency Reports
21 November 2008
Lagos — The largest mobile telecommunications network company in the world, Vodafone Group, has expressed its desire to operate in the Nigerian telecoms terrain.
Vodafone, with its headquarters in Berkshire, England, UK has a market value of about £75 billion.
It currently has operations in 25 countries and partner networks in a further 42 countries.
Speaking at a conference in Barcelona, Spain, the Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone, Mr. Vittorio Colao, who described Nigeria as an emerging telecoms market, said the firm was still interested in investing in the country's telecoms sector.
Vodafone's renewed interest is coming as it beat off Nigeria's Globacom's attempt in acquiring the majority shares of Telkom in Vodacom, South Africa.
Colao said: "Despite the fact that Vodafone has expanded its operations tremendously across emerging markets in the past two years with acquisitions in Turkey, India, South Africa and Ghana to make up for slower growth in Europe, the Nigeria telecoms sector is a prized and valuable market that we will be glad to operate in."
Commenting on purchases to expand Vodafone's business in established markets, Colao said he was "supportive of potential opportunities" which help create value for shareholders and cut costs.
Vodacom had spurned the Nigerian telecoms market a few months after the introduction of flourishing GSM into the country.
The former CEO of Vodacom, Alan Knott Criag, had in an interview with journalists said the company had regretted walking out of the Nigerian telecoms market.
The Nigerian market had since beaten all projections and turned out to be the largest in Africa with over 57 million subscribers.
In November 2005, Vodafone announced that it was in exclusive talks to buy a 15 per cent stake of VenFin in Vodacom Group, reaching agreement the following day. Vodafone and Telkom then had a 50 per cent stake each in Vodacom.
On October 9, 2008, the company offered to acquire an additional 15 per cent stake in Vodacom group from Telkom.
The finalised details of the agreement was announced on November 6, 2008.
The agreement calls for Telkom to sell a 15 of it 50 per cent stake in Vodacom to the group, and demerging the other 35 per cent to its shareholder.
Meanwhile, Vodafone has agreed to make Vodacom its exclusive sub-Saharan Africa investment vehicle.
Also, Vodafone agreed to continue maintaining the visibility of the Vodacom brand. The transaction is expected to close on May/June 2009.
Nigeria's Second National Carrier, Globacom, Africa's fastest growing telecommunications network, had in August expressed interest in Telkom's assets in Vodacom, but was not successful.
If Globacom's attempt had succeeded, it would have created the biggest and largest telecoms brand that would be known as Vod Glo.
Glo, which had to do battle with Vodafone for Telkom's shares in Vodacom, was said to have lost because Vodafone is a part-owner of Vodacom and had stopped Globacom's bid.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
