Ravi Ruia may be chairman of Hutch-Essar

The Ruia family of the Essar group has finally agreed to a seemingly favourable agreement with Vodafone, which acquired majority stake in Hutch-Essar.

According to the agreement, Essar group vice-chairman Ravi Ruia will be the chairman of Hutch-Essar. Besides, Essar will nominate four out 12 directors in the board of the country's fourth largest mobile company and will have the option to sell its 33 per cent stakes in the joint venture after three to four years. If the option is exercised, the premium will be decided by independent valuers.

The new partners have also agreed to change the Hutch brand in a period of eight months to a year.

Other than Ravi Ruia, the other nominees of the Essar group to the board will be Prashant and Anshuman Ruia, sons of Ravi's brother Shashi, and Vikash Saraf. Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin will be the vice-chairman. There will be no change in the management of the company, which will be led by CEO Asim Ghosh.

The details of the agreement were finalised between top Vodafone officials and Vikash Saraf, chief executive officer of Essar's telecom investments vehicle, Essar Teleholding, in London today.

Vodafone will inform the stock exchanges about the changes tomorrow - the notice has to be sent by 7 am GMT. Sarin flies to New Delhi tomorrow to address a joint press conference with Ravi Ruia in the afternoon.

The agreement, which was to be thrashed out last Sunday and to be followed up with a press conference the next day, was held up as the Ruias' lawyers sought last minute changes.