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Safaricom PLC has disclosed to the Nairobi Securities Exchange that Vodafone Kenya Limited served formal notice on 3 December 2025 of its intention to acquire an additional fifteen percent stake in Safaricom from the Government of Kenya.
The transaction involves the purchase of six billion and ten million ordinary shares currently held by the Government at a price of thirty four Kenya shillings per share, giving the deal a total value of approximately two hundred and four billion three hundred million Kenya shillings, equivalent to one billion six hundred million United States dollars.
Upon completion of the acquisition, Vodafone Kenya Limited will increase its direct shareholding in Safaricom from the current forty percent to fifty five percent. At the same time, Vodacom Group Limited, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed majority owner of Vodafone Kenya, will acquire the remaining twelve point five percent minority interest in Vodafone Kenya that is presently held by Vodafone International Holdings B.V. for sixty eight billion one hundred million Kenya shillings. Following this internal restructuring, Vodacom Group will own one hundred percent of Vodafone Kenya and, through it, an indirect fifty five percent controlling interest in Safaricom.
After both transactions are concluded, the shareholding structure of Safaricom will be as follows; Vodafone Kenya Limited (wholly owned by Vodacom Group) fifty-five percent. Government of Kenya approximately twenty percent (reduced from the current thirty five percent). Public investors and other shareholders twenty five percent.
The acquisition will push Vodafone Kenya’s holding above the fifty percent threshold that, under Kenya’s Capital Markets (Take Overs and Mergers) Regulations, normally obliges an acquirer to make a mandatory offer for all remaining shares. Vodafone Kenya has confirmed, however, that it does not intend to launch a full takeover of Safaricom and has formally applied to the Capital Markets Authority for an exemption from this requirement.
Separately, Vodafone Kenya has agreed to pay the Government an upfront amount of forty billion two hundred million Kenya shillings in return for entitlement to future dividends attached to the State’s retained twenty percent shareholding.
The proposed transactions are conditional upon obtaining approvals from a range of Kenyan and regional authorities, including the Cabinet, Parliament, the Capital Markets Authority, the Communications Authority of Kenya, the Central Bank of Kenya, the COMESA Competition Commission, and the East African Community Competition Authority.
Safaricom has advised shareholders and the investing public to exercise caution when dealing in the company’s shares until all regulatory processes have been finalised and further official announcements are released through the prescribed channels.
