Vodafone Idea falls 6% as CEO Balesh Sharma resigns

Vodafone Idea shares slid 6 per cent to Rs 5.60 in early morning trade on the BSE on Tuesday after Balesh Sharma stepped down as company’s chief executive officer (CEO) with immediate effect due to personal reason. Ravindar Takkar has been appointed as managing director and CEO for period of three years.

Over the past one year, Vodafone Idea has continued to be plagued by rapidly falling stock prices, dropping 83 per cent from level of Rs 32, against 2 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex.

Sharma will be taking up a new role with Vodafone Group, which will be announced later. He has been the CEO of Vodafone Idea since the completion of the merger of the two telcos in August 2018. Prior to that, he was the chief operating officer of Vodafone India. He has also overseen the successful integration of Vodafone Idea, resulting in the estimated timescale to complete the integration process.'

Sharma has driven the strategy of the combined business since its formation and has also spearheaded the largest-ever equity raise in India.

"That (the CEO's resignation) will put pressure. They are not able to increaae their share price. At least the drop has been minimal. But the growth that Reliance Jio is showing, it is going to be negative for other telecom players. And with Vodafone, there are high number of complaints about call quality and call dropping. So, with these kinds of problems and their huge debt, the turnaround is difficult." AK Prabhakar, head of research, IDBI Capital said.

At 9:51 AM, the stock was trading 5.01 per cent lower at Rs 5.69 as compared to a 0.02 per cent gain in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex.

IDEA Cellular Limited