Vodafone and Essar to run Hutch together

Mumbai, Feb 15 (UNI) A day after clinching the deal to buy out major stakes in Hutch-Essar, British Telecom giant Vodafone's CEO Arun Sarin today met the top brass of Essar Group to chart out future plans.

Emerging from his two and half hour meeting with Mr Sarin , Essar Group Vice Chairman Ravi Ruia told reporters ''We are not going to exit the business. We will run it together,'' He said Essar, the 33 per cent stakeholder in mobile firm Hutch-Essar, would run the business along with the new majority partner Vodafone.

Mr Sarin, who is on his first visit to India after buying out Hutchison's 52 per cent stake in Hutch Essar, said he had huge respect for Ruias-promoted Essar as partners. '' We will take the business forward together'' he said adding '' They have created value in the business. We are now trying to iron out all related issues and will run the business together,'' MORE UNI AR/CP OBB AG2027