Essar Telecom Head To Join Motorola

Pramod Saxena, director (telecom) of the Essar group, is quitting the steel-to-oil major to join Motorola. He will head the US telecom giant's cellular infrastructure group (CIG) business in India, sources said here yesterday. The group has notched some $200-250 million worth sales in India to date.

His move comes close on heels of the elevation of Anders Gustafsson, Motorola's CIG head in India to lead the group's business in South Asia. In addition to his earlier responsibilities of covering India, Nepal and Bangladesh, he will now oversee business in countries like Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, among others in the region.

Saxena's decision to join Motorola -- expected next week -- comes in wake of a statement made by Essar chairman and managing director Shashi Ruia that the group wants to exit from its telecom businesses after identifying it as a "non-core business". The former is credited with building Essar's cellular telecom business and its sale to Swisscom.

Earlier this year, Essar transferred shareholder and management control to Swisscom in its cellular venture, Sterling Cellular. The group is understood to have chalked out a strategy under which it would make a gradual exit from its various telecom ventures depending on the "value acquistions by the ventures and the market conditions".

After the sale of stake to Swisscom (which effectively controls 52 per cent equity), Essar is reportedly scouting around the market for a buyer for its basic telecom business in Punjab.

The group holds 90 per cent equity in Essar Commission, the basic telecom licensee in the state.

It is also said to hold control in Evergrowth Telecom, one of the cellular licensees in the state, to which Essar has lent Rs 98 crore in form of debentures.

"We have identified telecom as a non-core area and have decided to get out of this sector. We will do it in a phased manner, depending on the market conditions," Ruia told Business Standard last week.

According to industry sources, Essar's decision to exit from the telecom sector is to result in twin gains to the group: besides fetching handsome returns on its telecom investments, it would also help it to get finances from financial institutions and banks for its other businesses.