Hutchison Sets Up Six Member Board

Usha Beltron Ltd (UBL) and Telekom Malaysia, Berhad, which had a 51 per cent and 49 per cent stake, respectively, of the equity shares of UMT Investments Ltd (UMTIL), have sold their shareholdings to Jaykay Finholding (India) and a new shareholding company Asian Telecommunications Investment Mauritius Ltd (ATIML), respectively.

The transfer of shares were approved by the board of directors of UMTIL at its meeting held on July 27, 2000. There has been a change in management and nominees of the new shareholders have been appointed on the board of UMTIL.

A six-member board has been constituted which includes Hutchison's Indian operations chief, Asim Ghosh, Prashant Jhawar, the current vice-chairman of Usha Beltron, and David Johnston, chief financial officer of Hutchison Max.

Prashant Jhawar, the original promoter of UMTL, currently retains a five per cent stake in the company which is seen as a hand-holding agreement with Hutchison.

Rajiv Sahani, who has been heading sales and marketing in Hutchison's cellular services in Mumbai, will now be the chief operating officer and replace Arun Kapur who has been heading Command as the chief executive officer.

Sahani, however, will not be on the board. Kapur will move to the US to head Usha Martin Infotech's operations.

Hutchison, which will hold close to 95 per cent stake in Command, plans to retain the Command brand for the time being.

Recently, Modi Telstra, Command's rival, was scrapped and replaced by the Spice Telecom brand. Command is currently in the process of upgrading its cellular infrastructure and as per COAI data had around 46,000 subscribers by the end of May 2000, against 54,000 of Spice Telecom (the then Modi Telstra).