Mumbai, June 15: Vodafone Group Plc, which now holds a controlling stake in Hutchison Essar Ltd, is planning to invest $2 billion this year into the business even as it expects the cellular operator to add 1.5 million customers every month, Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin said today.

Sarin was in Mumbai today to attend the first meeting of the new Hutch Essar board. Hutch Essar will soon be named Vodafone Essar and the Hutch brand will also be replaced shortly.

Sarin said after the board meeting that the process of integrating Vodafone and Hutch Essar would be completed by September. He said more investments would flow in depending on the progress that the Indian entity made.

The company’s board has 12 members, four from Essar and eight from Vodafone, including two independent directors. Ravi Ruia is the chairman of the board and Arun Sarin its vice-chairman. Asim Ghosh is the managing director.

Sarin said no date had been set for the change of the brand name. “But it will happen. The next time you come here, you will see the Vodafone name,” he added. He said he was negotiating with other mobile service providers in the country on the possibility of sharing infrastructure like towers.

“We are interested in setting up a platform with whoever wants to join us so that we can build our network in India in a cost-effective manner,” he said. Vodafone has already announced network sharing plans with Bharti Airtel Ltd.