Ravi Ruia may become chairman of Hutch-Essar

15 March 2007

New Delhi: The Ruia family of the Essar group seems to have come to a favourable agreement with Vodafone that acquired majority stake in Hutch-Essar.

The agreement includes Essar group vice-chairman Ravi Ruia becoming chairman of Hutch-Essar apart from which 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 agreement, which was to be discussed 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.