Telenor Group has named Morten Sørby, formerly the company’s CEO of Indian subsidiary Uninor, as its new head of Asia, succeeding incoming group CEO Sigve Brekke.

Brekke was named as the company’s new CEO earlier this month, replacing Jon Fredrik Baksaas, who is retiring in August after 13 years at the helm.

Brekke will now start his preparation period, ahead of his August start date, while Sørby will assume his new role of running and overseeing Telenor’s operations in Asia from June 1, with the continent now representing over 40 per cent of the company’s total enterprise value.

When appointing for the top job, Telenor’s board pointed to Brekke’s strong track record in Asia, where Telenor has over 100 million subscribers. Sørby will now be tasked with maintaining growth in the continent, where it is performing particularly strongly in emerging markets like Myanmar.

Sørby joined Telenor in 1993, serving in a number of roles at the company, including EVP of corporate strategy and regulatory affairs and head of mobile and fixed network operations in Norway.

In a statement, outgoing CEO Baksaas said Sørby will be able to “bring his vast experience from the mobile industry to the role and continue [Telenor’s] growth story in this dynamic region”.