The UAE’s biggest telecoms operator e&, formerly known as Etisalat, has increased its stake in British company Vodafone Group as it seeks to diversify operations globally.
The company now owns an “aggregate 3,272.3 million shares, representing 12 per cent of Vodafone's issued share capital [excluding treasury shares]”, it said on Wednesday in a filing to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, where its shares are traded.
The move to boost the stake in Vodafone was “executed at what we believe is an attractive valuation [and] the investment rationale is unchanged from our announcement on May 14, 2022, specifically to obtain significant exposure to a global leader, and leverage potential commercial partnership and realise future return on our investment”, e& said.
The financial details of the latest transaction were not disclosed.
The UAE telco acquired about 2.76 billion shares, or a 9.8 per cent stake in Vodafone, for $4.4 billion in May, before increasing its shareholding to 11 per cent last month.
Founded in 1976, e& is the UAE's oldest telecoms company. It has operations in about 16 countries across the Middle East, Asia and Africa, serving more than 156 million customers.
In February, it rebranded in a push to transform into a global technology investment conglomerate.
It provides innovative digital solutions, smart connectivity and next-generation technology to a variety of customer segments through its business pillars — etisalat by e&, e& international, e& life, e& enterprise and e& capital.
In October, e& launched a $250 million venture capital fund as part of its new investment unit, e& capital, to support the technology start-up ecosystem.
During the same month, e& enterprise completed the 100 per cent acquisition of Smartworld, one of the UAE’s leading technology solutions providers and systems integrators.
E& is pursuing a two-pronged strategy of expanding its telecoms asset base, integrating emerging technology and supporting the rapidly expanding start-up community, group chief executive Hatem Dowidar told The National in an interview on the sidelines of Gitex Global last year.
In December, e& signed a joint venture agreement with South Korea's Bespin Global to set up a business that will provide public cloud services in the Middle East, Turkey, Africa and Pakistan. The two companies each contributed $10 million in initial capital.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
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If you go
The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly direct to Nairobi, with fares starting from Dh1,695. The resort can be reached from Nairobi via a 35-minute flight from Wilson Airport or Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, or by road, which takes at least three hours.
The rooms
Rooms at Fairmont Mount Kenya range from Dh1,870 per night for a deluxe room to Dh11,000 per night for the William Holden Cottage.
