Vodafone CEO, Sarin steped down and left his charge after strong results. Sarin worked 5 years on that company.

He said: "I feel that I have accomplished what I set out to achieve, particularly in developing and implementing a new strategy...I know that the business is in capable hands with Vittorio Colao. Having worked with him for many years I know that he has the experience and vision to take Vodafone on to future success."

At the same time, Vittorio Colao was nominated to substitute Arun, as we could see on that quote.

The shares rose 3 per cent, or 5p, to 168.3p as the market opened.

Mr Sarin battled a shareholder revolt two years ago when more than 10 per cent of the group's investors voted against his re-election to the board, accusing him of being too quick to spend millions of pounds on foreign acquisitions. He also faced opposition from those on the board who backed the strategy of his predecessor Sir Christopher Gent and disliked Mr Sarin's strategy of selling the Japan business and well as those in Sweden, Switzerland and Belgium.

The Vodafone chief today announced record full-year operating profit of £10 billion, with pre-tax profit of £9 billion compared with a £4.8 billion loss last time. However, free cash flow weakened from £6.1 billion to £5.5 billion and net debt shot up from £15 billion to £25 billion.

The surge in Vodafone’s profits and its growing debts have been fuelled by the group’s expansion in emerging markets, particularly in India, thanks to last year’s acquisition of Hutchinson Essar, steered by Mr Sarin.

Analysts said that today’s results vindicated Mr Sarin’s position after the unrest two years ago.

Sources close to Mr Sarin, 53, believe that he could be eyeing a position in the world of private equity. At Vodafone last year he was paid some £5.7 million in basic salary, bonus and shares.

Mr Sarin, who replaced Sir Christopher Gent at the head of Vodafone in 2003, began his career in telecoms almost 25 years ago.

It has included a stint with Pacific Telesis Group in San Francisco, after which he joined its subsidary AirTouch as chief operating officer.

When AirTouch was taken over by Vodafone, Mr Sarin became chief executive of the US and Asia-Pacific operations, also joining Vodafone’s main board. Mr Sarin was appointed chief executive of Vodafone when investors wanted the company to concentrate on managing its businesses efficiently and returning cash to shareholders, after its dramatic takeover-driven expansion between 1999 and 2002.

After the group’s shares flatlined and fell by 1.5 per cent in 2006, they have risen 14.06 per cent to 163.3p in the past year, giving a market capitalisation of almost £87 billion..

As well as success in emerging markets, Mr Sarin has also seen revenues rise thanks to data traffic. Last year revenues from this area — the downloading of music clips, e-mailing and so on — surged nearly 50 per cent in the first half to £1 billion. Data revenues now account for 7.3 per cent of the group’s total Western European revenues.

The improvement does little, however, to justify the £6 billion splashed out by the group on it 3G licence during frenzied bidding at the height of the dot-com boom.

During his five-year tenure, he has turned around Vodafone’s prospects, giving an indication that consumers are banishing their reluctance to spend on more lucrative services, instead of just calling and texting.

In the current environment the group’s diversified geographic portfolio and, critically, its exposure to markets outside the UK and the US are a big plus. Although a foothold in such markets does not come cheap — it spent $11.1 billion (£5.7 billion) for a 67 per cent stake in Hutchison Essar, India’s fourth-biggest mobile operator, last year — Vodafone has presented sound evidence of a good payback.

Vodafone recently looked into buying MTN, the South African mobile phone operator, but backed out.

At the end of last year, Vodafone’s £5 billion bid to extend its half share of Vodacom, another South African mobile operator, collapsed. Telkom, with which it co-owns Vodacom, called off talks after several months.

Mr Sarin has also served as a director of Gap, the retailer, Charles Schwab and Cisco Systems. In 2005 he was appointed a non-executive director of the Bank of England.

Data Source

Guardian.co.uk