Veon Ltd Stock Price, News & Analysis

VEON Ltd. (NASDAQ: VEON) announces that Group General Counsel Omiyinka Doris will step down from her position effective July 1, 2025, transitioning to a strategic advisor role to the Group CEO in Amsterdam. During her decade-long tenure at VEON, Doris served in various legal leadership roles and was instrumental in key strategic initiatives including VEON's exit from Russia, bond restructurings, consolidation of trading on Nasdaq, and headquarters relocation to Dubai. She played a crucial role in the planned Kyivstar Group listing on Nasdaq and helped maintain Ukraine's telecommunications infrastructure during wartime as a Supervisory Board member. Doris was recognized by the Financial Times as one of the world's top 15 in-house legal leaders in 2024. She led significant transformations in VEON's legal and compliance teams, establishing an Ethics and Compliance Centre of Excellence in Dubai.

VEON Ltd. (Nasdaq: VEON) has announced the third phase of its USD 100 million share buyback program, committing up to USD 35 million for ADS repurchases. This follows the successful completion of two earlier phases, which resulted in buying back 1.43 million ADSs at an average price of USD 45.59 per ADS. The program, initially announced on August 1, 2024, aims to optimize shareholder value as the company believes its ADSs are undervalued. The buybacks will be conducted on the open market through a 10b5-1 plan. Additionally, VEON is exploring options to raise external financing through a private placement of bonds with a tenor of up to four years, to be issued by VEON Midco B.V. and guaranteed by VEON Amsterdam B.V.

VEON Ltd. has announced a significant milestone in its plan to list Kyivstar Group on Nasdaq through a public filing of Form F-4 registration statement with the SEC. The listing will follow a business combination with Cohen Circle Acquisition Corp. I, expected to complete in Q3 2025. Upon closing, Kyivstar Group, the parent company of Ukraine's leading digital operator JSC Kyivstar, will trade under the symbols "KYIV" and "KYIVW", becoming the only pure-play Ukrainian investment opportunity on U.S. stock markets. The transaction will position Kyivstar Group as a prominent Ukrainian telecommunications and digital services company on Nasdaq, offering global investors direct access to Ukraine's economic growth potential.

Kyivstar Group, a subsidiary of VEON Ltd. (NASDAQ: VEON), reported strong Q1 2025 financial results with total operating revenue reaching USD 255M, up 37.1% YoY. The company achieved USD 44M in profit (up 22.2% YoY) and Adjusted EBITDA of USD 140M (up 50.5% YoY). Post quarter-end, Kyivstar completed strategic acquisitions including Uklon, Ukraine's leading ride-hailing platform for USD 155.2M, and increased its stake in digital health platform Helsi from 69.99% to 97.99%. The company's multiplay customer base grew 40.7% YoY to 6.1M users, while digital monthly active users reached 10.3M. Kyivstar announced plans to list on Nasdaq through a business combination with Cohen Circle Acquisition Corp. I, positioning itself as Ukraine's only pure-play investment opportunity on U.S. stock markets.

VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan has launched AI Tutor, an AI-powered learning assistant integrated into their Janymda super-app, which reaches 4.9 million monthly active users. The tool, developed in collaboration with QazCode, leverages the locally developed KazLLM language model to provide six gamified learning modules focused on Kazakh language education. The AI Tutor includes features like Make a Sentence, Word Game, Find a Mistake, Continue a Story, Fill in the Blank, and Text Questions. KazLLM was created through a partnership between Beeline Kazakhstan, QazCode, Nazarbayev University, and Astana Hub, with support from Kazakhstan's Ministry of Digital Development. This initiative builds on QazCode's previous success with Kaz-RoBERTA-conversational, a 2-billion parameter Kazakh language model, and represents VEON's commitment to using AI for educational accessibility in frontier markets.

VEON Ltd. (NASDAQ: VEON) has successfully completed a strategic infrastructure partnership with Engro Corporation in Pakistan. The deal, valued at USD 562.7 million, involves transferring VEON's telecommunications infrastructure assets from Deodar (Private) Limited to Engro Connect, Engro Corp's subsidiary. Jazz, VEON's digital operator, will maintain long-term access to this infrastructure for mobile voice and data services through a leasing agreement. This partnership, initially announced in December 2024 and approved by regulators in May 2025, aligns with VEON's asset-light strategy and aims to accelerate Jazz's transformation into a comprehensive digital services provider offering financial services, entertainment, healthcare, and enterprise solutions.

VEON (NASDAQ: VEON) has secured all regulatory approvals for its strategic infrastructure partnership with Engro Corporation in Pakistan. The deal involves transferring VEON's infrastructure assets from Deodar to Engro Connect, Engro Corp's subsidiary. Under the agreement, Engro will pay $188 million to Jazz and guarantee Deodar's intercompany debt repayment of $375 million.

The partnership, initially announced in December 2024, received approvals from the Competition Commission of Pakistan, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, and Islamabad High Court. The arrangement is expected to complete in June 2025. Jazz will continue to lease Deodar's infrastructure for nationwide mobile services through a long-term partnership agreement, transforming into an asset-light services company.

Beeline Uzbekistan, a subsidiary of VEON Ltd. (NASDAQ: VEON), has relocated its headquarters to Tashkent's IT Park, marking a significant step in its commitment to Uzbekistan's digital transformation. The new headquarters will accommodate around 2,000 employees, including digital services teams, VEON AdTech, and Beelab.

The company reported 9.5 million monthly active digital users in Q1 2025, offering services through its fintech app Beepul, super-app Hambi, and digital entertainment platforms Kinom and Riitm. Since entering the Uzbek market in 2006, VEON has focused on expanding beyond traditional connectivity to deliver digital financial and AI-powered technologies through its DO1440 and AI1440 initiatives.

VEON reported strong Q1 2025 financial results with total revenue growing 8.9% YoY to USD 1,026 million and EBITDA increasing 13.7% YoY to USD 439 million. The company's digital transformation strategy showed impressive results with direct digital revenues surging 50.2% YoY to USD 147 million, now representing 14.3% of total revenues. The company maintains a solid financial position with USD 1,775 million in total cash and deposits, while reducing net debt to USD 1,810 million. VEON's 2025 outlook remains positive, projecting 12-14% revenue growth and 13-15% EBITDA growth in local currency terms. The company also announced the second phase of its share buyback program worth USD 35 million, following the completion of a USD 30 million first phase.