The Ruias-controlled Essar Group has seen the flight of two high profile officials from its telecom businesses recently.

Mr Atul Chaturvedi, who was at the helm of its subsidiary Essar Telecom Kenya, has put in his papers. He was appointed as the CEO of Kenya's third largest telecom operator less than a year ago. His replacement, Mr Madhur Taneja has been poached from Uganda-based Warid Telecom where he was the Chief Executive Officer earlier.

According to news reports in the African media, Yu (the brand under which Essar Essar provides telephony services) was the only operator which lost subscribers in the quarter ended October, losing 26,266 subscribers to 14.6 lakh.

Yu competes with the likes of Safaricom, Airtel and Orange in Kenya.

Mr Rajeev Sawhney, who was the overall head of the Essar groups' telecom initiatives, has also moved on. Mr Sawhney has now joined Mahindra Holidays and Resorts as the CEO. He was the CEO of Essar's telecom business group since 2008.

The Essar Group has not yet named a replacement for Mr Sawhney.

An Essar Group spokesperson dismissed the theory that the exits were part of any restructuring process. “Mr Sawhney is moving out of the telecom industry and is going to pursue a career in the hospitality industry, while Mr Chaturvedi is returning back to India for personal reasons. In a large organisation of our size, such movements are natural and we have suitable depth of internal talent which will soon take over these responsibilities,” he added.

Essar's telecom arm was in the news of late in connection with its spat with the Vodafone Group; the British telecom firm raising objections to a potential merger between two Ruias promoted companies — Essar Telecommunications Holdings and Indian Securities.

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