London - Vodafone Group PLC named Hannes Ametsreiter, the head of Telekom Austria AG, to run its German business, where revenue has declined.
Ametsreiter, 48, replaces Jens Schulte-Bockum, whose resignation was announced in May with Vodafone’s annual results. Ametsreiter will start on October 1, Vodafone said in an emailed statement on Friday.
Germany, Vodafone’s largest country by sales, reported service revenue that shrank 3.1 percent last quarter as it lost customers to Deutsche Telekom AG. The declines prompted the company to announce changes to its marketing strategy and network investment.
The future of the German business is also thrown into doubt as Vodafone holds talks with billionaire John Malone’s Liberty Global Plc. Vodafone announced on June 5 that it was in discussions about possible asset swaps with Liberty, and the two businesses have competed for cable assets in Germany, including Vodafone’s Kabel Deutschland Holding AG.
Ametsreiter has had difficult jobs before. Since he took over as chief executive officer of Telekom Austria in 2009, the company’s shares fell more than 40 percent as competition with Deutsche Telekom and Hutchison Whampoa Ltd cut into revenue. It attracted the interest of Carlos Slim’s America Movil SAB, which became the Austrian company’s largest shareholder and introduced a series of cost cuts and new services.
Vodafone’s shares rose 0.3 percent to 233.90 pence in London trading at 9:43 a.m. The shares have gained 5.2 percent this year.
Bloomberg