Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub sells R20 million in shares

Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub sold 165,809 of the telecom giant’s shares for an estimated value of R20 million.

The largest telecom company in South Africa announced on Thursday, 13 February, that its CEO had sold thousands of the company’s ordinary shares in two separate transactions.

The first transaction took place on Tuesday, 11 February. Joosub sold 67,500 shares for an average price of R120.24 per share. The total value of this sale was R8.12 million.

The second sale was made on Wednesday, 12 February, when the CEO sold 98,309 shares for an average price of R120.88, with a total value of R11.88 million.

On 12 February, Vodacom’s share price was R120.22 at market close. The company did not provide a reason for these sales.

These transactions come a few weeks after Vodacom released a trading update on its performance in the last three months of 2024.

On 3 February 2025, the telecoms giant released a trading update for the quarter ended 31 December 2024, which showed lacklustre revenue growth.

The company said group revenue grew by 1.6% to R39.5 billion, impacted by a stronger rand.

If adjusting for foreign exchange impacts and the impact of merger, acquisition and disposal activities, group revenue could have grown by 12.6%.

Similarly, Vodacom’s service revenue would have grown by 11.6% on a normalised basis but, in reality, declined by 1.4%.

The company said the devolution of the Egyptian pound impacted its revenue in March 2024.

Vodacom’s South Africa segment showed the strongest growth, with revenue increasing by 4.7%.

Egypt was by far the worst-performing segment, with a 7.5% revenue decline. This segment, in particular, faced foreign exchange headwinds.

In local currency, this segment grew revenue by 54.9% and service revenue by 44.3%. Hovering, in rand terms, the segment saw service revenue shrink by 13.9%.

Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub said these results support the telecoms giant’s previously communicated confidence that it is poised for a stronger second-half performance.

“While currency headwinds continue to impact various markets where we operate, the focused execution of our strategy has resulted in a resilient operational response to the extent that we remain well on track to deliver on our medium-term financial targets,” he said. 

“Additionally, the recent currency market stability, particularly in Egypt, bodes well for the group’s performance in the year ahead.”

Vodacom reported group capital expenditure of R14.3 billion year to date equates to an intensity ratio of 12.7%.

It warned that, for the 2025 financial year, the company’s intensity ratio is likely to be at the lower end or slightly below the medium-term target range, supported by savings on energy resilience spend in South Africa.