Vodafone Could Spin-Off M-Pesa To Tap Pandemic-Driven Popularity: Bloomberg

Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ:VOD) indicated a possible spin-off of its African mobile money service M-Pesa following pandemic induced demand surge, Bloomberg reports.
Vodafone aims to form its financial services activities into a new legal entity.
M-Pesa is a mobile money service for people even without conventional bank accounts. About 41.5 million active customers carried out over 12 billion transactions in 2019.
Established in 2007 by Vodafone’s Kenyan associate, Safaricom, M-Pesa has more than 430,000 active agents operating across the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, and Tanzania.
Vodafone’s majority-owned South African subsidiary Vodacom Group Ltd recently partnered with China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) to develop VodaPay for the new smartphone users.
The telecom firm reported first-quarter FY22 revenue growth of 5.7% year-on-year to €11.1 billion, aided by a 5.6% organic growth.
Service revenue growth in Europe and Africa and recovery in handset sales drove the numbers.
Service revenue grew 3.1% Y/Y to €9.4 billion.
Vodafone Business service revenue increased 2.7% driven by solid growth in IoT and digital services.
M-Pesa transaction volumes rose 45% Y/Y.
The Europe mobile contract churn was 160 basis points lower than Q1 FY20.
The roaming and visitor revenue grew 56% Y/Y, but still 54% lower than Q1 FY20.
Price action: VOD shares traded higher by 2.13% at $16.56 on the last check Friday.