e& is a telecom company based in the United Arab Emirates. They came out to announce that the company has purchased a stake of 9.8% of Indian based telecon company, Vodafone for a total of a staggering $ 4.4 billion USD.
The company also recently announced that they will be exploring various avenues in different countries across the world and even delve in to the financial technology industry and its safe to assume that this acquisition is in relation to that.
Emirates Telecommunications Group which rebranded in to e& is although not the biggest telecom company based in the United Arab Emirates, it is still a reputed and respected player in the industry and has its own decent chunk of market share.
The company’s spokespeople said that they are looking to be one of the global pioneers in the science and industry of instant communications and this acquisition now makes them directly vested in one of the largest markets for telecom in the world. They even came out to clarify that they never had any intention of acquiring the company as a whole.
Over the past few years, the popularity and market share of Vodafone has been consistently waning and people thought they would fade in to obscurity like its predecessors such as Uninor and Aircel. Combined by the fact that there are only two major players in the industry keeping the price as close to the floor as possible in Reliance Jio and Airtel, it seemed like it was going to be very steep hill for Vodafone to climb to get back up with the big players of the field.
The company currently faces a net debt that amounts to $ 46.1 billion USD or 44.3 billion Euros which also seems like an uphill battle for the company to clear them. The chief executive officer of the company, Mr. Nick Read is now facing heavy pressure from investors and stake holders who are financially vested in the firm. He took the job 4 years ago back in 2018.
Vodafone’s spokespeople also came out to comment on this recent deal by saying that they are excited to forge such a partnership and they will be looking to synergize and work together to have a long-lasting relationship that benefits all parties. The opinions and verdict of the company appear to be quite mixed considering the fact that Vodafone is well past its peak years but time will tell if the deal is a hit or not.
