ARUN SARIN, the chief executive of Vodafone, vowed yesterday to press ahead with plans to revive the mobile phones group, despite an expected shareholder revolt against him at the group’s annual general meeting today.

Mr Sarin declared that he had enough support to defeat the rebellion, although he respected the views of disgruntled shareholders.

“To the best of my knowledge, all of the resolutions we have at the AGM will pass with strong votes,” he said. “I have a sufficient level of support from the shareholders and the board to continue running the company.”

The mobile phone industry and Vodafone were facing of a period of change, to which people needed to adapt, he said. “This is the time for us to march on.”

However, even as he spoke Mr Sarin was dealing with the combined blow of the sudden departure of Bill Morrow, one of Vodafone’s key executives, and the news that the man whom he defeated for the top job three years ago was suddenly back in play.

Mr Sarin insisted that Mr Morrow, who had been recruited to fill a series of vital trouble-shooting roles at Vodafone, had to leave for family reasons. He will return to be with his wife and children in California.

At the same time it emerged that Vittorio Colao, a former Vodafone executive and contender for the top job, was now available for work.

Mr Morrow’s surprise departure, and the timing of it, coming at the end of this month, prompted speculation that there had been a row between Mr Morrow and Mr Sarin. The group denied this was the case. Some people close to the group maintained that Mr Morrow, who himself was tipped as a potential future head of Vodafone, was not a great supporter of Mr Sarin and his style.

Meanwhile, criticisms of Mr Sarin by two more major institutional shareholders — Legal & General and Standard Life — left his own future at the group looking bleak.

After winning the upper hand in an embarrassing boardroom row at the group, Mr Sarin has made every effort to win over his critics.

But some feel that confidence in the Indian-American has never really recovered from his early days in the chief executive post when he launched a failed bid for AT&T Wireless.

Since then Mr Sarin has presided over a series of announcements that have either disappointed or shocked investors. In November last year, for example, news of a potential £5 billion corporation tax payout sent shares to a year-low.

Although Vodafone had always made clear that it was likely to face tax payouts and had made provision for them on its balance sheet, Mr Sarin conceded that news of the tax payouts may have been “a bit of a surprise for . . . investors” and that that had been reflected in the share price.

Under his tenure the group also reported its first fall in revenue and recently unveiled a record £15 billion full-year pre-tax loss.

A long-awaited new strategy, unveiled in May, failed to overcome criticisms with investors complaining that the bigger questions facing the group — such as the future of its stake in Verizon Wireless in the United States — had been left unanswered.

SARIN’S WOES

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