Emirates Telecommunications Group Company (e&) has informed Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) that its shareholding in Vodafone Group has increased to around 15.01 percent.
In the filing, e& said: “The updated shareholding is a result of Vodafone carrying out its share buyback programme, which reduces its total share capital. e&’s total number of shares remains the same at 3,944.7 million shares.”
As per a previous SEC filing, e&’s stake in Vodafone before the buyback was 14.61 percent.
The British telecommunications company had informed the London exchange last week that it had bought back 18,504,238 of its own shares at prices ranging from 74.04 to 75.18 pence per share, with the average price paid being 74.72 pence (AED3.61/$0.98).
The shares will be held in treasury, leaving the company with 26,303,110,448 ordinary shares in issue, excluding those held as treasury stock. The transaction was part of a share repurchase programme executed by Goldman Sachs International on behalf of Vodafone.
In August last year, Hatem Dowidar, e& CEO, had told CNBC Arabia that his company was planning to increase its stake in Vodafone to 20 percent.
As per a Reuters report, Dowidar said e& was awaiting regulatory approvals in countries where the British company operates, which “include an agreement to regulate relations between the two companies, and also the possibility of increasing our stake to 20 percent.”
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