The South African mobile phone company, Vodacom, will acquire a majority stake from its British parent company Vodafone Egypt for $2.7 billion, with a view to expanding its presence on the African continent.

According to Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub, one of the biggest attractions in the Egyptian market is that most of the hundred million inhabitants do not use traditional banks. This allows the operator to successfully launch its mobile money services through the M-pesa platform.

"There are significant opportunities to boost our financial services platform," Joosub said. "We do not intend to enter other geographies, but to grow our financial services across the continent."

The Johannesburg-based company, which is over 60% owned by Vodafone Group, will issue new shares to cover 80% of the acquisition cost of the Egyptian market leader.

The agreement between the parties is a win for Vodacom to conquer other markets and present a greater challenge to arch-rival MTN, the largest operator on the continent.

And, on the other hand, the understanding with Telecom Egypt - which has waived the rule that a mandatory offer must be made for its shares in the event of a change of control - will leverage mid-term operating profit growth into double digits.

For Vodafone, it allows the company to move forward with a plan to consolidate its operations on the continent under Joosub's leadership. The British operator had been looking at a potential sale of its majority stake in Vodafone Ghana to its South African partner.

Vodacom shares rose as high as 3.8% in early trading in Johannesburg, the most in seven weeks, valuing the company at more than 259 billion rand.