British telecom giant Vodafone could face a downgrade in its credit rating by Standard and Poor's if its proposed bid for Hutchison Essar Ltd exceeds $19 billion, a media report said in London.
Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin on Wednesday discussions with Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, who asked the UK telecom giant to follow best commercial practices in its bid to acquire Hutch-Essar.
Ahead of his scheduled meeting with Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin, who is bidding for Hutch-Essar, Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran on Wednesday said the government wanted good companies to enter the country.
As top bosses of Vodafone and Essar arrived in Hong Kong to negotiate a deal for acquiring Hutchison Telecom's Indian business, its parent company has indicated it will not consider any offer below $14 billion.
Indian-origin telecom titan Arun Sarin, who is retiring as Vodafone CEO in July, is likely to venture into private equity business and may also join boards of large international companies as a non-executive director.
The board of GSM service provider Vodafone-Essar is expected to discuss the income tax issue at its meeting to be held on Friday.
In a report, JP Morgan said Vodafone needed to raise exposure to high-growth emerging markets and offset prospective fall in EBITDA in Europe.
PIOs have also emerged among the most powerful businessmen of their respective sectors, led by the likes of steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and telecom titan Arun Sarin. While Mittal, recently named UK's richest persons for fourth year in a row, has been identified as the fifth most powerful in the UK manufacturing business, Sarin has beaten all to grab the top slot in the 100 most powerful persons list for country's technology and telecom sector.
Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin, who engineered the acquisition of Hutch-Essar in India, has accused unsuccessful rival bidders of trying to derail the deal and sought transparency from Indian regulators in M&A approvals.
Announces 50% cut in prepaid monthly recharge.
Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin is expected to visit India next month to reconstitute the board of Hutch Essar, which would be renamed as Vodafone Essar.
Vodafone debuted at 20th rank in this year's list, prepared by consulting firm Hay Group and Chief Executive Magazine. PepsiCo is down to 7th position from its third rank last year. In the 2006 list, Citigroup, now headed by another Indian origin banker Vikram Pandit, was ranked at fourth. However, it does not find a place in this year's list. Nagpur-born Pandit was named the CEO of Citigroup earlier this month, after his predecessor Charles Price stepped down last month.
Sarin said Hutchison obviously had its own compulsions of not being able to continue in India.
British telecom giant Vodafone on Wednesday ruled out any higher offer for buying out Essar's 33 per cent stake in mobile venture Hutch-Essar, saying it would be same as that for Hutchison Telecom's stake.
Vodafone which has won the bid for majority stake in Hutch-Essar, is likely to resume discussions with Indian partner Essar on issues like management and share structure within the next week or 10 days.
Vodafone, the mobile phone giant headed by NRI chief executive Arun Sarin, on Tuesday announced annual losses of 14.85 billion pounds and said it planned to cut 400 jobs at its headquarters in Newbury in the UK.
Half a dozen names are doing the rounds as replacement for Cyrus Mistry as the chairman of the Tata Group.
Based on Statista data for 2019, Vodafone has 17.2 million subscribers in the UK, 29.5 million in Germany, and over 13.7 million in Spain. Without Voda Idea, the Group will become smaller than Airtel and Jio.
Cut-throat competition, high spectrum costs, and frequent flip-flops in government policies have made it difficult for Vodafone to make money in the country.
To outgoing Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao, negotiating big deals was an art form, as an international report pointed out after the $130-billion sale of Vodafone's 45 per cent stake in Verizon Wireless, says Nivedita Mookerji.
Dr Kalam, the scientist with the poet's heart, started the journey of his life from a small town in Tamil Nadu.
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