No change in Vodafone deals: Mittals

The Mittals of Bharti Airtel have clarified that there is no change in their three agreements with Vodafone on roaming, long-distance services and sharing of infrastructure.

The clarification comes a day after Vodafone signed a shareholders' agreement with the Essar group.

Vodafone bought the 52 per cent equity stake held by Hong-Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa in Vodafone Essar Ltd (formerly Hutchison-Essar Ltd.

Questions about Vodafone's agreements with Bharti were raised because Essar also holds long-distance licences through Essar Global, and a tower infrastructure company through Essar Infrastructure. Both companies have been assured some part of Vodafone-Essar's business.

Further, Ravi Ruia, vice-chairman of Essar, and Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone, had said yesterday that the Bharti agreement was subject to Vodafone-Essar board's ratification. Vodafone has six representatives on the 12-member board.

Meanwhile, Sunil Bharti Mittal will stop looking after the day-to-day functioning of Bharti Airtel from April 1, 2007. He will hand over charge to Manoj Kohli.