Abu Dhabi – Mubasher: e&, formerly known as Etisalat Group, has increased its equity in Vodafone Group’s issued share capital, excluding treasury shares, from 9.80% to 11%.

Following this equity raise transaction, e& owns 3.01 billion shares in Vodafone, according to a bourse disclosure.

The ADX-listed firm noted that the rationale of its investment in Vodafone is unchanged from the original one that was announced on 14 May 2022, under which the former purchased about 2.76 billion shares in the latter at a value of $4.40 billion.

This transaction aimed to boost the UAE-based company’s exposure to international markets and back possible commercial partnerships in the fields of research and development, technological applications, as well as procurement.

In the first nine months (9M) of 2022, the net profits attributable to the shareholders of e& amounted to AED 7.34 billion, up 2.30% from AED 7.18 billion in the year-ago period.

Revenues declined by 1.10% to AED 39.29 billion in 9M-22 from AED 39.72 billion in 9M-21, whereas the basic and diluted earnings per share (EPS) inched up to AED 0.84 from AED 0.83.