LONDON, July 1, 2026, 23:01 BST
- Vodafone Group Public Limited Company (LON:VOD) dropped 1.12% to 98.48p, behind the FTSE 100 Index (INDEXFTSE:UKX), which slipped 0.18%.
- Shares are off 4.8% across two sessions after falling 3.72% on Tuesday, even as the FTSE 100 added 0.12%.
- Vodacom Group Ltd JSE:VOD finished its Safaricom Plc (NAI:SCOM) transaction, taking its holding to 55% and bringing Safaricom under full consolidation for Vodafone.
- Vodafone said in a July 1 filing that total voting rights were 23.03 billion. Treasury shares make up 5.35% of its issued capital.
Vodafone Group Public Limited Company (LON:VOD) ended Wednesday in the red, but the single-day drop is not what caught investors’ attention. The bigger point was that shares sank through the 100p mark just a day after Vodafone moved to consolidate Kenya’s Safaricom, locking in a quicker-growing African unit as questions still swirl around Germany, debt and cash flow.
Vodafone ended at 98.48p in London, slipping 1.12p on the day. The FTSE 100 dropped 0.18%, according to Hargreaves Lansdown. AJ Bell tracked Vodafone’s volume at a bit above 69 million shares, with market cap roughly 22.68 billion pounds.
| Tape | Vodafone | Benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| July 1 | 98.48p, off 1.12% | FTSE 100 slipped 0.18% |
| June 30 | 99.60p, dropped 3.72% | FTSE 100 added 0.12% |
| Two-session move | fell 4.8% from 103.45p | trailed both days |
The selloff is important because Vodafone’s main new driver for growth is now a larger part of the group. Vodafone said June 30 that Vodacom finished buying a 20% effective stake in Safaricom, bringing its total to 55%. Vodacom spent 204 billion Kenyan shillings, equal to 1.36 billion euros, to get 15% from Kenya’s government and 68 billion shillings, or 450 million euros, for 5% from Vodafone.
The 1.81 billion-euro gross figure at Vodacom comes to around 70% of Vodafone’s 2.6 billion euros in projected FY26 adjusted free cash flow. This isn’t a true debt gauge, since part of the stake came from Vodafone, but it helps investors size up the Africa push.
| Data point | Latest figure | Why investors care |
|---|---|---|
| Vodacom’s Safaricom holding | 55% | Enables full consolidation into Vodacom and Vodafone |
| Gross cash paid by Vodacom | KES 272 bln / €1.81 bln | Sizeable compared to Vodafone’s FY26 adjusted FCF |
| Vodafone FY26 adjusted FCF | €2.6 bln | Impacts dividend space, debt load and deal options |
| Vodafone votes in issue | 23.03 bln | Used for ownership reporting requirements |
| Treasury shares | 1.30 bln | 5.35% of outstanding shares not voting |
Safaricom adds a different growth angle compared to Vodafone’s established European arms. When Vodafone disclosed the deal in December, it put Safaricom’s market value at 7.7 billion euros. The Kenyan unit processes more than 100 million daily M-Pesa transactions and has 38 million M-Pesa users in Kenya. Vodafone also said Safaricom posted a 9.3% lift in Kenya service revenue for the six months ended Sept. 30, 2025, while M-Pesa revenue rose 14%.
Vodafone is still trading as if it’s just a European telecom rebound. For FY26, Vodafone posted organic service revenue up 5.4% and organic adjusted EBITDAaL 4.5% higher, with total shareholder returns of 3.1 billion euros for the year. CEO Margherita Della Valle said the group is “well set for mid-term growth.” Vodafone
There’s a risk that Vodafone will rely more on Africa for growth with Germany still sluggish. Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said after the FY26 results, “the turnaround is far from complete” and called Germany Vodafone’s “toughest nut to crack.” Britzman said the £4.3 billion cash needed for the VodafoneThree buyout will lift debt but probably stay inside the group’s leverage limits. HL
Della Valle has linked Vodafone’s strategy to building scale. At Reuters NEXT Europe in June, she said bigger digital infrastructure investments “need scale” and flagged the UK network merger with Three as an example, saying managing traffic for 28 million customers changes the economics. Reuters
Vodafone’s July 1 voting rights update puts the number of ordinary shares at 24.33 billion, with 1.30 billion in treasury, and 23.03 billion shares carrying voting rights. With the stock closing Wednesday at 98.48p, that equals about £22.68 billion in equity value on the voting base, matching market cap figures from AJ Bell.
Vodafone’s next events are the Q1 FY27 trading update set for July 27 and the 2.3625 euro-cent final dividend payment on July 30.
