Vodacom (JSE: VOD) has finalised the acquisition of a 35 per cent stake in Kenya’s leading telecoms firm Safaricom (NSE: SCOM) after the South African firm received all regulatory approvals.

The transaction, valued at about Sh266.6 billion, has seen Vodacom buy the interest from its parent firm Vodafone, a British multinational.

The transaction received the backing of Vodacom’s largest institutional investor— South Africa’s Public Investment Corporation — in June.

Vodacom’s minority shareholders also approved the deal on July 18, leaving Kenyan and South African regulators as the last hurdle for shares transfer to be completed.

“Vodafone Group Plc announces today that its wholly-owned subsidiary Vodafone has completed the transfer of a 35 per cent indirect shareholding in Safaricom to Vodacom, its sub-Saharan African subsidiary,” Vodafone has said in a statement.

“Vodafone retains an indirect stake of five per cent in Safaricom.”