Safaricom PLC’s Deal Of The Decade Soars It’s Share Price On Ethiopian License As It’s CEO Becomes The Most Watched CEO On The Continent

Nairobi (SokoNews): Safaricom PLC shareholder’s paper wealth rose by KES 90.1 billion on Tuesday as investors rushed to buy the company’s shares after it was awarded a license to enter Ethiopia’s underserved telecoms market. Bringing the NSE alive, something that has been alien to the markets.

It marks one of the largest one-day gains on a single stock in the history of the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE). The move made the stock a behemoth of stocks and thrust the CEO Mr. Peter Ndegwa into the global spotlight of the CEOs who will be monitored, tracked, analyzed, and critiqued every single moment. The move made NSE feel like it just had one stock. Something that needs to change.

The telco’s share price closed at a record average of Sh41.75 from Friday’s Sh39.50, giving it a market value of Sh1.67 trillion, the highest since listing at the Nairobi bourse in June 2008.

Shareholders of the brand are an excited lot, wondering whether to sell or hold or buy more. It’s about to get bloody on the streets of the market as people make decisions based on emotions instead of data and professional guidance. Safaricom PLC is the best investment anyone can make during this difficult time but how many can see that?

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The consortium led by Safaricom, Vodafone, British development finance agency CDC Group and Japan’s Sumitomo said Monday they will start operations in Ethiopia next year after they beat South Africa’s MTN to the license. This will definitely change how Safaricom PLC operates and how its performance will be played out at the NSE. This Consortium will definitively develop a culture that will enable them to work together without compromising on their home operations and without breaking any guiding international laws especially those of Ethiopia.

The rally has taken Safaricom PLC’s share price gain to 45.5 percent over the past 12 months, bucking the general bear run trend on the NSE that has been fueled by the Covid-19 pandemic and a receding economy coupled with a toxic political environment. Safaricom PLC has become the life of the party.

The rise was mainly driven by the news of entry into Ethiopia since investors see this as another opportunity for the telco to grow revenues, mostly an emotional aspect given that Ethiopia is an interesting market with a huge population, which is the KEY plus but an intricate political environment that is murky and difficult to navigate unless the Consortium develops a culture that will be instrumental for their success.

Ethiopian officials announced on Saturday morning that a Safaricom-led consortium —which includes its South African parent firm Vodacom— won an $850 million (Sh91.7 billion) auction to acquire a new telecom operating license. The devil is in the detail and as analysts at www.sokodirectory.com have put it, many are