Verizon Wireless has appointed Vodafone Essar CFO Andrew Davies as vice president and CFO, effective Nov. 15.

Davies will replace John Townsend, who has been tapped as CFO of Vodafone Group’s European region after serving at Verizon Wireless since January 2005. Vodafone is Verizon Wireless’ co-parent company.

Davies joined Vodafone in September 2003 and held a number of senior positions at the company’s operations in the U.K., Japan and Turkey before being tapped as CFO of Vodafone Essar, Vodafone’s Indian subsidiary, where he was for the past three years. The Indian subsidiary has more than 111 million customers.

The executive shuffle comes amid struggles with Vodafone’s Indian operations, which it wrote down by more than 25 percent last spring. Vodafone agreed to pay $2.5 billion for a slice of India’s 3G spectrum during the country’s airwave auctions in May.

An Indian court decision yesterday compounded the region’s drain on Vodafone’s finances. According to news reports, the Bombay High Court ruled that Vodafone must pay a $2.6 billion capital gains tax on its $11 billion purchase of a controlling stake in Hutchinson Essar in 2007. Vodafone is expected to appeal the decision.