Sanjay Kapoor, chief executive of Bharti Airtel’s key Indian and South Asia unit, is to leave the operator at the end of February.

Kapoor – who has served 15-years at India’s largest mobile operator – gave no reason for his departure after three years in charge of the firm’s operations in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Gopal Vittal, currently group director of special projects, will take over as the company’s India CEO, effective 1 March, the company said in a statement. He will report to Bharti Airtel’s chairman and MD Sunil Mittal.

“[Vittal] has a wealth of experience in assimilating the consumer mindset, managing operations efficiently, winning with the customer, building brand and innovating to secure market leadership,” said Mittal.

According to the latest Wireless Intelligence data, Bharti was the world’s third-largest mobile group on almost 270 million connections at the end of last year, behind only China Mobile and Vodafone. Its India unit counts for the vast majority of its customers (186 million).