Saudi Telecom offers $2.39bn for Vodafone Egypt unit stake

Saudi Telecom Co. offered $2.39bn for Vodafone Group Plc‘s holding in its Egyptian unit.

The cash offer is for Vodafone’s 55 per cent stake in Vodafone Egypt and the memorandum of under is valid for 75 days, according to a statement.

The offer gives an enterprise value of $4.35bn for Vodafone Egypt.

• The potential transaction does not involve any related parties to Saudi Telecom
• Name of financial advisers will be determined at a later stage
• A binding agreement is yet to be entered

The possible deal comes more than six years after Saudi Telecom had considered a bid for a minority 45 per cent stake in Vodafone Egypt held by state-run Telecom Egypt.

Vodafone Group had also expressed interest in buying the Egyptian state-run telecommunication company’s holding in the unit.

Neither deal was realized.

Telecom Egypt’s reluctance to sell had been linked in part to its own entry into the mobile-phone market as a fourth operator, rivaling the local units of Vodafone, Emirates Telecommunications Group Co. and Orange SA.

The company said in 2018 that it would consider selling its stake in Vodafone’s local unit only when its own market share grows enough that its investment begins to suffer.