CEO Nick Read to rationalise global enterprise
Vodafone has agreed to sell its operations in Ghana to the Telecel Group, as the British telco giant begins to regroup. A majority stake in Vodafone Ghana will be transferred to Africa-focused Telecel, subject to certain conditions, said a Vodafone statement. A representative for Telecel confirmed the talks with Vodafone.
Vodafone entered Ghana in 2008 when it paid the west African country’s government $900 million for 70% of Ghana Telecommunications Co. The Ghanaian administration retains a 30% holding in the business. Telecel will part-fund the acquisition by selling the mobile towers it inherits from the Vodafone Ghana division, according to Bloomberg sources.
Vodafone CEO Nick Read faces the task of rationalising a global business that extends from an HQ in the British Home Counties through West Africa to the south Island of New Zealand. There is a fine line between being omnipresent and ‘all over the place’.
In Africa, Vodafone has been steadily consolidating interests under its sub-Saharan subsidiary Vodacom Group, of which it owns 60.5%. Vodafone explored a sale of its Ghanaian business to Vodacom in early 2021 and, while that deal did not materialize, transferred a 55% holding in its Egyptian operations to the group later in the year.
Since its founding in 1986, Telecel now operates in 31 countries and employs 701 staff, its website says. The company has a history of growth by acquisitions, having struck deals in Gibraltar, Liberia and Mauritania in recent years.