Ask any former Vodafone executive about investing in India and you will receive the same advice: “Don’t” (Simon Duke writes). In 2007, Arun Sarin, its former boss, splashed out more than $10 billion for a controlling stake in one of India’s largest mobile phone operators. You can understand the allure. India was, and remains, a booming economy. Who wouldn’t want to buy a chunk of a promising industry in a frontier market?
Yet Mr Sarin’s ambitions never came close to being realised. Despite investing $20 billion in India, Vodafone yesterday slashed the value of its business to zero.
The downfall of the Vodafone Idea venture stems from never-ending price wars and repeated crackdowns from regulators and government. For prospective shareholders, the question is: why
