By Radarr Africa Business Desk
JOHANNESBURG, November 12 (Radarr Africa) – Vodacom Group said it remains confident of overturning a Kenyan High Court ruling that ordered it to return a 15 per cent stake in Safaricom to the Kenyan government, as it reported a rise in half-year earnings on Tuesday.
Chief executive Shameel Joosub said the group did everything by the book in acquiring the stake. Vodacom lifted its holding in Safaricom, Kenya’s biggest telecoms operator, to 55 per cent through a $1.6 billion deal completed in June. In September, Kenya’s High Court ruled that the sale did not adequately involve the public and that material information had been concealed.
Vodacom and the Kenyan government are both appealing. The Court of Appeal in Nairobi is fast-tracking the case and has ordered that the prevailing status quo be maintained pending its decision, so Vodacom remains the registered holder of the shares. Vodacom shares were up just over 5 per cent by 11:20 GMT on the day of the results.
For the six months ended September 30, headline earnings per share rose to 5.87 rand from 4.67 rand a year earlier. Service revenue grew 29 per cent to 85.1 billion rand ($5.20 billion), or 13 per cent on a pro forma basis that includes Safaricom in the comparative period.
Financial services revenue surged 99 per cent to 15.9 billion rand, or 19 per cent on a pro forma basis. Vodacom said its financial services platforms process $575 billion in transactions.
The Safaricom stake gives Vodacom majority ownership of the most mature and profitable market for M-Pesa, the mobile money service launched with Safaricom in 2007. Vodacom is expanding lending, investments and merchant services, and aims to replicate the success M-Pesa has had in Kenya and Tanzania elsewhere in Africa.
In South Africa, the group said it is watching for regulatory reforms that would allow non-banks to take deposits.
The figures in rand were converted at 16.3621 rand to the dollar.
