Vodafone chief keeps his job after ballot

LONDON - The board of British mobile phone giant Vodafone has stood by chief executive Arun Sarin, despite a shareholder vote in which nearly 10 per cent of ballots were cast against him.

The world's biggest mobile phone company by sales said 85 per cent of shareholders voted in support of Sarin's reappointment in a proxy vote. Some 33.5 billion votes were cast in support of re-electing Sarin, 3.71 billion votes were against him and there were 2.2 billion abstentions.

Sarin has come under fire for not spelling out more clearly how Vodafone plans to cope with slowing growth in core European markets and new technologies and there have been complaints about the company's lagging stock price.

- REUTERS