Dubai (Reuters) – On Saturday, Emirates Telecommunications Group Company PJSC, now known as “e & A,” announced that it had paid $4.4 billion for a 9.8 percent stake in Vodafone (NASDAQ: VOD).
The move came a few days after e& said it wanted to grow by entering new markets in Africa, Europe, and Asia, as well as areas outside of telecoms like financial technology.
The telecommunications company from the United Arab Emirates said that it made the investment to get “significant exposure to a world leader in connectivity and digital services.”
UAE’s e& says it has no plans to make an offer to buy Vodafone because it fully backs the company’s board, current management team, and business strategy.
CEO Hatem Dowidar said, “We see this investment as a good chance for e& and its shareholders because it will help us improve and grow our international portfolio in line with our strategic goals.”
The UAE company recently split its business into three parts: e& life, which focuses on consumer services, e& enterprise, which provides digital services to government and businesses; and Etisalat, which the CEO of the company said is the seventh-largest company in the world by market capitalization.
