South Africa's competition tribunal on Wednesday approved Vodafone's bid to buy a 15 percent stake in local operator Vodacom in a multi-billion-dollar deal, paving the way for the second-largest investment in the country since the end of apartheid in 1994.

In the deal, worth around 2.4 billion dollars, British mobile group Vodafone has been given the green light to make an offer to buy-out ordinary shares in Venfin, which owns 15 percent of local mobile operator Vodacom.

The Venfin share buy-out will boost Vodafone's shareholding to 50 percent in Vodacom, one of three cellular providers in Africa's largest economy.

"On successful completion of the transaction, Vodafone will dispose of all Venfin's non-Vodacom investments," the competition tribunal said in a statement, issued in Johannesburg.

The largest investment yet made in post-apartheid South Africa was that between Barclays, Britain's third-largest bank, and South African retail banking group Absa in July.

The deal to create Africa's biggest bank was valued at 4.4 billion dollars at the time.

Source: Xinhua