Vodafone India, Idea announce Kumar Mangalam Birla as new Chairman

New Delhi: The telecom biggies Vodafone India and Aditya Birla group firm Idea Cellular on Monday after their merger announced Kumar Mangalam Birla as the Chairman of the new entity.

"I am pleased and honored to be the chairman of the new company," said Kumar Mangalam Birla who is expected to create India`s largest telecom firm with a revenue share of around 40 percent and a subscriber base of over 380 million.

"It gives me immense pleasure that we reached to an agreement to merge our companies Idea Cellular and Vodafone. We are number two and number three companies in present telecom sector with a customer base of 400 million," he added.

The merger will facilitate VIL and VMSL`s entire business to be vest in the company, excluding VIL`s 42 percent share in Indus Towers. The merger will come into effect after new shares are issued in Idea to Vodafone and would result in Vodafone deconsolidating Vodafone India.

The merger is said to increase competition in the telecom space where players are in a tussle to increase revenue and subscriptions.

The two parties believe that the merger will enhance pan India 3G/4G footprint, thereby accelerating the Narendra Modi-Government`s `Digital India` initiative.

Furthermore, it is believed to help in leveraging customer affinity towards the two brands in the telecom spectrum.