Hutch becomes Vodafone on Sep 21

By IANS

Mumbai : UK-based telecom giant Vodafone and Indian partner Essar Wednesday announced that the Vodafone brand would be officially launched on Sep 21.


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Vodafone acquired Hong Kong-based Hutchison International’s Indian telecom arm Hutch’s stake in Hutch-Essar for $11 billion in May this year.

“We’ve had a great innings as Hutch in India. Today marks a new beginning for us, not as a departure from the fundamentals that created Hutch, but an acceleration into the future with Vodafone’s global expertise,” Asim Ghosh, managing director, Vodafone Essar, said in a statement.

Vodafone’s Indian-born CEO Arun Sarin would be visiting India end this week to officially launch the brand transition from three pink stars to the bright-red speech-bubble.

“This transition is probably the largest brand change ever undertaken in this country and arguably as big as any in the world. It is even larger than our own previous brand transitions, as it touches over 35 million customers, across 400,000 shops and thousands of our own and our business associates’ employees,” Vodafone Essar’s marketing and new business director Harit Nagpal said.

The company earlier said it would be investing $2 billion in consolidating and expanding its business here. It also announced that Essar’s vice chairman Ravi Ruia would be chairman of the new joint venture while Vodafone’s Sarin would be vice-chairman.

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