Kumar Mangalam Birla will be the non-executive chairman of Idea Cellular, Vodafone India merged entity
Vodafone Group Plc and Idea Cellular on Thursday announced the proposed leadership team of the combined business, which will come into effect after the Vodafone-Idea Cellular merger has been completed. This is in line with the original merger announcement of 20 March 2017, which said that the management team of the combined business would be confirmed prior to closing. The joint enterprise of Vodafone and Idea Cellular, currently country's number two and number three telecom companies, respectively, would unseat Bharti Airtel to grab the top slot. Once the deal goes through, Vodafone will own 45.1 per cent stake in the merged entity, while Idea Cellular will have a 26 per cent stake. However, this will happen after paying Rs. 3,874 crore cash for a 4.9 per cent stake. The remaining 28.9 per cent will be held by other shareholders.
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- Kumar Mangalam Birla will be the non-executive chairman of the merged company. A non-executive chairman is entrusted with no operational responsibilities but only enjoys the board responsibilities, said Vodafone.
- Balesh Sharma, currently chief operating officer of Vodafone India, will be the CEO. Mr Sharma will be responsible for the combined business's strategy and its execution as well as driving integration, according to a statement from Vodafone.
- CFO Akshaya Moondra, currently chief financial officer at Idea, will head the finance function of the merged entity. Ambrish Jain, currently deputy managing director at Idea, will be the chief operating officer (COO) of merged entity.
- Nick Gliddon, currently director, Vodafone Business Services at Vodafone India, will be responsible for the Enterprise Business while Manish Dawar, currently CFO of Vodafone India, will have the overall responsibility for integration planning, governance and execution in the Kumar Mangalam Birla-led telecom company.
- Sashi Shankar, currently chief marketing officer at Idea, will be responsible for marketing and brand strategy for the consumer business. Vishant Vora, currently chief technology officer of Vodafone India, will have responsibility for networks and overall technology strategy.
- Prakash Paranjape, currently chief information officer at Idea, will be responsible for the IT operations of the Kumar Mangalam Birla-led merged company.
- The existing leadership teams of Idea Cellular and Vodafone India will continue to manage their separate businesses and be accountable for each company's operational performance until the merger becomes effective.
- It is only the upon completion of the merger which is expected to come into effect by the first half of the current calendar year - that the two businesses will cease to operate as distinct and competing entities.
- For the merger, the companies first approached the approval of Competition Commission of India (CCI). On July 24, last year the CCI gave its approval to the merger of two telecom companies. On October 13 last year, shareholders of Idea Cellular gave their approval to the scheme relating to the merger of its mobile business with Vodafone India. Over 99 per cent of Idea shareholders voted in favour of the merger at the shareholders' meeting on October 12, 2017, stock exchange filing by Kumar Mangalam Birla-led Idea Cellular stated.
- Following the shareholders' approval, the companies sought approval from the National Companies Law Tribunal (NCLT). As the NCLT approved the proposed merger, the companies are now free to approach the department of telecom for the final approval.
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