e& completes Vodafone exit with Dh21.9 billion in proceeds

The group completed the stake sale and will receive the final dividend on July 30

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This photo taken on January 30, 2026 shows a Vodafone logo above the entrance to one of the company's stores in London.
This photo taken on January 30, 2026 shows a Vodafone logo above the entrance to one of the company's stores in London.
AFP-CARLOS JASSO

Abu Dhabi: e& has completed the sale of its entire stake in Vodafone Group, securing total consideration of Dh21.9 billion, equivalent to $5.95 billion.

The group transferred 3,944,743,685 Vodafone shares to BNP Paribas Financial Markets, Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, and Société Générale.

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The transfer generated gross cash proceeds of Dh21.5 billion, equivalent to $5.84 billion, at around 110.5 pence per share.

Final payment due on July 30

e& will receive the remaining 2.02 pence per share linked to Vodafone’s final dividend for the 2026 financial year on July 30.

That payment is worth Dh400 million, or $110 million, and will bring the total consideration from the transaction to Dh21.9 billion.

The sale generated a net cash return of Dh4.8 billion, equivalent to $1.3 billion.

Focus returns to core businesses

e& said the transaction represented a natural evolution of its strategic priorities and would allow the group to sharpen its focus on core businesses while realising the value created through its Vodafone investment.

The sale was first announced on July 10 under a binding agreement with Vega, an acquisition vehicle wholly owned by the Niel family group.

Nivetha Dayanand is Assistant Business Editor at Gulf News, covering aviation, financial markets and commodities. A business and financial journalist with a strong interest in multimedia storytelling, she regularly takes complex financial and economic subjects beyond the written word, producing explainer videos that make them easier for a wider audience to understand. Nivetha has interviewed senior policymakers, business leaders and global financial figures both on and off camera. Her past guests include UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Khaled bin Alwaleed Al Saud, a member of the House of Saud and the founder and CEO of KBW Ventures, Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund and Indian ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and N. Chandrababu Naidu. She has also hosted and moderated panels, conferences and awards shows, bringing her newsroom experience to live conversations on business, finance and the economy. An Erasmus Mundus journalism alum, Nivetha is drawn to stories that affect people directly and to reporting that gives a platform to voices that might otherwise go unheard. She was among the first journalists to speak to Petrofac employees in the UAE about unpaid salaries, broke the news of the planned demolition of Dubai’s well-known “Toyota Building”, and helped set the record straight on widely circulated claims that a giant replica of the Moon was coming to Dubai. More recently, her exclusive interview with EDGE Group CEO Hamad Al Marar revealed how the UAE-based defence group deployed its systems along the country’s shore border and established a geofence around the UAE within 48 hours of the February 28 escalation. Prior to joining Gulf News, Nivetha worked at ITP Media, where she helped launch Finance Middle East, a new publication covering the region’s financial sector. Her role spanned reporting and editing, video production, interviews and events. Across print, digital, and video, she focuses on finding the people behind business stories and explaining why those stories matter to the audience reading or watching them.

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