{"id":113706,"date":"2026-03-20T15:53:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T12:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/business\/?p=113706"},"modified":"2026-03-20T15:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T12:53:13","slug":"vodacom-safaricom-deal-leads-east-africa-ma-activity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/business\/2026\/03\/vodacom-safaricom-deal-leads-east-africa-ma-activity\/","title":{"rendered":"Vodacom\u2013Safaricom deal leads East Africa M&amp;A activity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 20 \u2013 East Africa\u2019s mergers and acquisitions (M&amp;A) market remained active in 2025, with top firms and advisers recognised at the DealMakers AFRICA Annual Gala in Nairobi.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The awards, which track advisory activity by deal value and volume, point to sustained investor interest across the region despite a challenging global economic environment.<\/p>\n<p>The largest transaction was Vodacom\u2019s acquisition of an additional 20 percent stake in Safaricom valued at $2.1 billion. The deal increased Vodacom\u2019s shareholding to 55 percent.<\/p>\n<p>In private equity, LeapFrog Investments\u2019s exit from Goodlife Pharmacy was ranked the top deal.<\/p>\n<p>Richard Harney was named DealMaker of the Year for advising on multiple transactions, including Diageo\u2019s divestment from East African Breweries.<\/p>\n<p>Among advisers, Absa led in M&amp;A by deal value, while Stanbic Bank and I&amp;M Burbidge Capital topped activity rankings.<\/p>\n<p>In legal advisory, ENS and Bowmans ranked highly across both value and volume categories.<\/p>\n<p>The DealMakers AFRICA platform, launched in 2008, tracks corporate finance and M&amp;A activity across the continent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The largest transaction was Vodacom\u2019s acquisition of an additional 20 percent stake in Safaricom valued at $2.1 billion. The deal increased Vodacom\u2019s shareholding to 55 percent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14438,"featured_media":113707,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5109,333,9387,27050,27049],"coauthors":[9476],"class_list":["post-113706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kenya","tag-activity","tag-east-africa","tag-leads","tag-ma","tag-vodacom-safaricom-deal"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.7.1 (Yoast SEO v25.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Vodacom\u2013Safaricom deal leads East Africa M&amp;A activity - Capital Business<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The largest transaction was Vodacom\u2019s acquisition of an additional 20 percent stake in Safaricom valued at $2.1 billion. The deal increased Vodacom\u2019s shareholding to 55 percent. Kenya breaking news | Kenya news today |\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/business\/2026\/03\/vodacom-safaricom-deal-leads-east-africa-ma-activity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vodacom\u2013Safaricom deal leads East Africa M&amp;A activity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The largest transaction was Vodacom\u2019s acquisition of an additional 20 percent stake in Safaricom valued at $2.1 billion. The deal increased Vodacom\u2019s shareholding to 55 percent. Kenya breaking news | Kenya news today |\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/business\/2026\/03\/vodacom-safaricom-deal-leads-east-africa-ma-activity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Capital Business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/capitalfmkenya\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-20T12:53:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/business\/files\/2026\/03\/2E5A8889-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"PHIDEL KIZITO\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@capitalfmkenya\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@capitalfmkenya\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"PHIDEL KIZITO\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/business\/2026\/03\/vodacom-safaricom-deal-leads-east-africa-ma-activity\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/business\/2026\/03\/vodacom-safaricom-deal-leads-east-africa-ma-activity\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"PHIDEL KIZITO\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/business\/#\/schema\/person\/27ddc81626f8f00b00f99d969c1ff0ee\"},\"headline\":\"Vodacom\u2013Safaricom deal leads East Africa M&amp;A activity\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-20T12:53:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/business\/2026\/03\/vodacom-safaricom-deal-leads-east-africa-ma-activity\/\"},\"wordCount\":180,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/business\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/business\/2026\/03\/vodacom-safaricom-deal-leads-east-africa-ma-activity\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/business\/files\/2026\/03\/2E5A8889-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"activity\",\"East Africa\",\"leads\",\"M&amp;A\",\"Vodacom\u2013Safaricom deal\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Kenya\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/business\/2026\/03\/vodacom-safaricom-deal-leads-east-africa-ma-activity\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/business\/2026\/03\/vodacom-safaricom-deal-leads-east-africa-ma-activity\/\",\"name\":\"Vodacom\u2013Safaricom deal leads East Africa M&amp;A activity - Capital Business\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/business\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/business\/2026\/03\/vodacom-safaricom-deal-leads-east-africa-ma-activity\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/business\/2026\/03\/vodacom-safaricom-deal-leads-east-africa-ma-activity\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.capitalfm.co.ke\/business\/files\/2026\/03\/2E5A8889-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-20T12:53:13+00:00\",\"description\":\"The largest transaction was Vodacom\u2019s acquisition of an additional 20 percent stake in Safaricom valued at $2.1 billion. 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