Sarin in India to attend board meeting

Vodafone chief executive Arun Sarin has arrived in the country to attend Hutch-Essar's board meeting slated to take place on Friday. He is also believed to be initiating the UK major's integration process with the recently acquired Hutch-Essar.

The meeting of Vodafone-Essar would also discuss the constitution of the 12-member board and induction of the directors, according to sources close to the development.

According to the agreement between Vodafone and Essar, the Essar Group chairman would be named as the chairman of Vodafone-Essar and Sarin its vice chairman.

Essar Tele-Holdings CEO Vikash Saraf, Essar Group directors Anshuman Ruia and Prashant Ruia, Hutchison-Essar managing director Asim Ghosh and Max India chairman Analjit Singh would be the other members on the board.

The officials of the two companies refused to comment on the agenda of the board meeting, but said it would broadly discuss the future plans of the integrated company.

Sources also stated that there would be two independent directors on the company's board, though this could not be ascertained.

Hutchison-Essar will be renamed as Vodafone Essar and the company will initiate a brand-building initiative. The transformation would be completed by the year-end.

The company had earlier announced investments of around £1 billion (Rs 8,000 crore) in India this year, amounting to around one-fifth of the company's global spending.

Vodafone had completed the acquisition of Hutchison-Essar last month, after it received regulatory approvals from the Indian government. The company paid $10.8 billion to take a 67 per cent stake, while the remaining 33 per cent is held by Essar group.

Hutchison-Essar has around 30 million subscribers and is the third largest operator after Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications.