By IANS
New Delhi : British telecom major Vodafone's chief executive Arun Sarin Monday clarified his remark on "the billionaires losers' club" which tried to "unwind" his firm's acquisition in India's third largest mobile service operator Hutch-Essar.
"As I have stated in public on a number of occasions, we have great respect for the role of the Indian authorities in scrutinising transactions such as ours, in accordance with Indian law. We have also publicly expressed our appreciation for the speed and thoroughness with which scrutiny of the transaction took place by various authorities in India," Vodafone's Indian-born CEO Sarin said in a statement.
Referring to his speech at a conference of Indian business and academic leaders in Silicon Valley Sunday, he said: "My remarks to the pan-IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) alumni about the process were directed at attempts by vested interests to derail the approvals procedure.
"In fact, the Vodafone experience highlights that the changing India of today has an efficient, effective and transparent process."
In the $11 billion deal in May Vodafone acquired Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunication's controlling stake in the Indian firm.
Highlighting the company's initiatives in the country, Sarin said: "We are now engaged in delivering on our promise to India, to build the infrastructure which will encourage further inflows of investment into India, to play our part in meeting the Indian Government's teledensity targets and help serve the Indian consumer."