Safaricom has completed the acquisition of the entire M-Pesa Holding Company from the Vodafone International Holdings BV.
In a statement on Friday, October 19, Safaricom said it entered into a share purchase agreement with Vodafone BV on April 17 for the transfer of 100 percent shareholding in M-Pesa Holding to Safaricom.
“The Board of Directors of Safaricom PLC (Safaricom) is pleased to notify the public of the completion of the acquisition by Safaricom of the entire issued share capital of M-PESA Holding Co. Limited from Vodafone International Holdings BV,” the telco said in a notice.
M-PESA Holding is the corporate trustee responsible for holding of M-PESA customer funds under the M-PESA trust arrangement as required by the National Payment System Regulations, 2014.
“Completion of the Transaction was subject to the satisfaction of conditions that are customary for transactions of this nature, including obtaining approval from shareholders and relevant regulators, all of which have been duly satisfied and all regulatory approvals obtained,” Safaricom added.
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M-Pesa was established in 2007 and has since grown to be one of the most successful mobile money services in the East Africa Region.
A transaction disclosure in April indicated that Safaricom paid Vodafone a token amount of one dollar for the transactions to receive regulatory approval.
Vodafone in April announced that M-Pesa Holding had short-term investments of about Ksh 195.3 billion and customer funds of about 193 billion.
