Vodafone is moving its group head of mergers and acquisitions Colman Deegan to Mumbai to plan and execute the listing of its Indian operations, reports the Economic Times citing an executive with direct knowledge of the development. Deegan, who was a banker in Ireland before joining the Vodafone group in 1998, will take over as the chief financial officer for the firm's Indian operations. He will replace Steve Walters, who is moving to the group's Qatar operations as CFO. Walters has been acting as finance head for Vodafone India for the last 12 months following the departure of its earlier CFO John Otty last year. Deegan moved to Vodafone's M&A team in 2004 and has been heading the unit since 2007. He led the team that sealed Vodafone's historic USD 11.1-billion acquisition of a 67 percent stake in the erstwhile Hutchison Essar in 2007 in India. He was also behind the group's buyout of a controlling stake in South Africa's Vodacom and its acquisition of Ghana Telecom in 2008.
