Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin says that his company will continue its talks with India's Essar Group about jointly running the Hutchison Essar Ltd., India's fourth-largest mobile phone operator with 23.3 million customers and 16.4 percent market share.
Vodafone has agreed to pay $11.1 billion for a 67 percent share of the company. However, yesterday The Wall Street Journal reported that Essar Group may try to block Vodafone's buy because Vodafone entered into an agreement to share rural telecommunications infrastructure with Hutchison Essar's rival, Bharti Airtel, India's largest cellular operator.
For more on this:
- read this WSJ article (sub. req.)