UAE e& Increases Stake in Vodafone to 15.01% Following Buybacks
Emirates Telecommunications Group Company (E&) has informed the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) that its stake in Vodafone Group has increased to about 15.01 percent.
In the filing, e& said: “As a result of Vodafone’s implementation of its share buyback programme, the renewed shares reduce its total share capital. The total number of shares of e& is 3,944.7 million shares.”
As per the previous SEC filing, E&I’s stake in Vodafone before the buyback was 14.61 percent.
The British telco last week told the London Exchange it had bought back 18,504,238 of its own shares at prices ranging from 74.04 to 75.18 pence, with an average price paid of 74.72 pence (AED3.61/$0.98).
The shares will be held in treasury, and excluding shares held as treasury shares, there will be 26,303,110,448 ordinary shares in issue. The transaction is part of a share repurchase program executed by Goldman Sachs International on behalf of Vodafone.
In August last year, e& CEO Hatem Dowidar told CNBC Arabia that he plans to increase his stake in Vodafone to 20 percent.
According to a Reuters report, Dowidar said the British company is awaiting regulatory approval in countries where it operates, including “an agreement to regulate the relationship between the two companies and the possibility of increasing our stake to 20 percent.”