Mobitelea Ventures is the name of a company that formerly owned 12.5% of Vodafone Kenya Ltd,[1] a 40% shareholder of Safaricom, a leading mobile network operator in Kenya.[2] [3] [4]
According to Vodafone, Mobitelea Ventures Limited was brought in as a partner to advise on local business processes and protocol.[5]
Documents obtained by The Guardian newspaper show that Mobitelea was registered in Guernsey on June 18, 1999. Mobitelea's owners are represented by two nominee firms, Guernsey – registered Mercator Nominees Ltd and Mercator Trustees Ltd. The directors are named as Anson Ltd and Cabot Ltd, based in Anguilla and Antigua.[5]
Vodafone brought back half of Mobitelea's stake at the beginning of 2003 [3] [6] and, during the year ending 31 March 2009, Mobitelea sold their remaining indirect shareholding in Safaricom to the Vodafone Group.[7]
Today, the shareholder structure of Safaricom is: Government of Kenya 35%; Vodafone 40%; Free Float 25%.[8]