Vodafone offers to absent its board members from Bharti Airtel

Vodafone offers to absent its board members from Bharti Airtel

Media group The Daily Telegraph has reported that UK based telecom giant Vodafone has offered to absent their representatives from the Bharti Airtel board considering they are in the race to acquire the Hutchison’s stake in Hutch.

Hutch is a rival mobile service provider to Airtel in the Indian market and Vodafone wants to avoid further straining already tense relations with its Indian partner.

The company has around a 10 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel and they would have to exit Bharti Airtel and seek waiver of a one-year non-compete clause in case they manage to acquire the stake in Hutch.

The report in the newspaper claimed that Paul Donovan and Gavin Darby (Vodafone representative on Bharti’s board) have written to the Bharti Airtel founder Sunil Mittal on the issue. Bharti has declined to comment on this rumor in the media.