AFTER the drama of the weekend, Vodacom’s listing on the JSE was a quiet affair.<\/p>\n
The listing, which took place at the JSE to the strains of the Vodacom choir, saw the share start to trade at R59.50.<\/p>\n
Vodacom was told late on Sunday that its listing could go ahead after an unsuccessful court bid by trade union Cosatu and the Independent Communications Authority of SA to halt the listing.<\/p>\n
The court decision, dismissing the urgent application with costs, concluded a dramatic weekend following Icasa’s decision late on Friday to backtrack on its earlier decision to let Telkom sell 15percent of Vodacom to Vodafone, a deal which precipitated Vodacom’s listing.<\/p>\n
Referring to the weekend’s events, JSE chief executive Russell Loubser started off proceedings saying that “we certainly didn’t cover ourselves in glory as South Africa”.<\/p>\n
Vodacom’s new chairman Peter Moyo said the weekend’s events “demonstrated that we need to engage more with some stakeholders”, adding that Vodacom could never have foreseen what took place on Friday.<\/p>\n
He said the biggest disappointment was that both Icasa and Cosatu had known about the deal and Vodacom’s listing for a long time.<\/p>\n
Before trade started at 9am, there were bids for the share at R110 but it traded at R59.50 in the first trade of the day. After reaching R64.95, it was trading at around R59 by midday and slightly lower towards the end of the day. Vodacom’s total value moved between about R88-billion and R93-billion, ranking it around 11th position on the JSE by market value.<\/p>\n
Telkom lost 50percent to trade at R56 at the start of trade to take into account the loss of the Vodacom value. Telkom shareholders became Vodacom shareholders too, and will still benefit from a R19 a share special dividend following the Vodafone deal.<\/p>\n
Vodacom chief executive Pieter Uys said that in 1993, only one in 10 people had phones. Today, there are more than 50 million active simcards in the country — more simcards than people — and about a third of the African continent is connected.<\/p>\n
He said the new relationship with Vodafone, recently ranked one of the top 10 brands in the world, was good for Vodacom, which had ambitious plans for the future.<\/p>\n
Lindsey McDonald, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan said she was thrilled that the listing had actually happened and thought the price looked good.<\/p>\n
After its court defeat and before the listing, Cosatu said it would call for a boycott of Vodacom.
Yesterday it issued a statement saying it was disappointed and angry at the court ruling on Sunday, and that the ruling was “a victory for money over people”.<\/p>\n
Cosatu was not just applying on its own behalf, it said, but to protect the interests of Vodacom workers and all South Africans, who we are confident will oppose Telkom’s sale of shares in Vodacom to Vodafone.<\/p>\n
“We remain convinced that the deal would remove any remaining South African control over the country’s biggest cellphone company.”<\/p>\n
Now, Vodacom will have no South African control at all, Cosatu said.<\/p>\n
“It is also highly probable that Vodafone will then want to ‘rationalise’ their business and retrench workers”.<\/p>\n
Cosatu will be consulting with its lawyers “on possible further court action to appeal against the decision, up to the Constitutional Court if necessary”.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, Cosatu will call for a boycott of Vodacom.<\/p>\n
Coronation Fund Managers portfolio manager Gavin Joubert said when Cosatu claimed, following Icasa’s about-turn, that this was a victory for all South Africans, in fact, it was the opposite. The relationship between Telkom and Vodacom had been dysfunctional and the sale to Vodafone frees both companies up to grow, and therefore to increase jobs.<\/p>\n
Vodacom, which was bound, geographically, to SA and its neighbours through the shareholder agreement, would be able to expand into Africa, not only creating more jobs but also bringing foreign earnings back into SA.<\/p>\n