Nairobi, June 30 -- South Africa's Vodacom has completed the purchase of an additional 15 percent stake in Safaricom ahead of the closure of the telco's shareholder registry for dividend payment on August 4, denying the Treasury Sh16.1 billion in additional pay.

On Tuesday, Vodacom announced it had closed the share purchase, three days after the Court of Appeal lifted orders that blocked the State from transferring the stake to the South African telecoms giant.

The transaction was executed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday as a block trade, marking the largest single transaction ever conducted on the bourse.

Had the sale of the stake been delayed beyond August 4, when Safaricom closes its books for the payment of a fi...