Sanjay Kapoor takes over as Bharti Airtel CEO ahead of schedule

Sanjay Kapoor has taken over as chief executive of Bharti Airtel for India and South Asia on 1 March 2010 as against from 1 April  2010 as earlier planned. The company also announced the appointment of Jai Menon as group director of information technology with effect from 1 April 2010.

Menon will work closely with the International Business Group led by Manoj Kohli, a company release said.

"He will establish group IT architecture and security standards and develop an appropriate partner governance mechanism. He will also build strategic group innovation alliances with global majors, such as IBM, Google, Apple and Microsoft," the release said.

Amrita Gangotra will take over as director - IT, Bharti Airtel (India and South Asia) and will report to Sanjay Kapoor. Amrita has been with Bharti Airtel for over six years and currently heads its IT operations as CIO-Mobile Services.

Announced a rejig at its top level ahead of an expected deal with Kuwaiti telecom company Zain to acquire its African assets.

Bharti Airtel Limited and Zain are in exclusive discussions until 25 March 2010 for the acquisition of Zain's African unit (Zain Africa BV). Any deal is likely to be based on an enterprise value of $10.7 billion for Zain.

"This potential transaction does not include Zain's operations in Morocco and Sudan and remains subject to due diligence, customary regulatory approvals and signing of final transaction documentation," Bharti said in an earlier web release, adding that there is also no assurance that a transaction will be consummated. 

Bharti Airtel has four strategic business units - mobile, telemedia, enterprise and digital TV. All these services are provided under the Airtel brand.