London-based PE fund Promethean Investments initiates Promethean India with the Dabur Group; appoint ex-ITV chairman Peter Burt

Sir Peter Burt, ex-chairman of ITV, will become chairman of Promethean India, a new India-focused private equity fund, a spin-off of the Promethean private equity vehicle run by his son, Michael. The new fund will be listed on London Stock Exchange’s AIM market and is understood to have investors such as Bank of Scotland and Alliance Trust. Insinger de Beaufort has been appointed advisor to the company.

Promethean India will become the latest in a string of companies to tap the London markets for cash earmarked for India. It will be run by Mohit Burman, a member of the Dabur Group, which houses the Burman family’s business interests, such as financial services, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and retail.

Mohit’s brother, Gaurav, plays a senior role at Promethean Investments in London, and will also be involved in the running of Promethean India, which will be based in offices in Delhi and Mumbai. The fund is understood to have a pipeline of potential deals. It will also target Indian firms in need of operational or financial restructuring and others which are domestically focused but which have potential for international expansion.

Read the article in The Telegraph.

Barclays Capital appoints Sanjay Mathur as Director

The Economic Times reports that Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm of global financial group Barclays, has appointed Sanjay Mathur from UBS as Director, Rates Research for its Asian operations (excluding Japan). Mathur would lead the firm’s coverage of macro-economic research on the Indian subcontinent, Malaysia and Singapore. Prior to this, Mathur was working as Executive Director in the regional economic team of global financial firm UBS.

Citigroup in talks to buy to hedge fund Old Lane for $600 mn; fund boss Vikram Pandit may get to head Citi’s alternative investments unit

Global banking giant Citigroup is in talks to buy Old Lane, a hedge fund firm co-founded by ex-Morgan Stanley senior executive Vikram Pandit. If such a deal happens, Mr. Pandit would probably be on his way to heading the bank’s alternative investments unit, and probably, also the top job at the world’s largest bank.

The purchase price for Old Lane is estimated to be around $600 mn. Old Lane is thought to have more than $4 bn of assets under management. The alternative investments unit is the smallest of Citigroup’s four main businesses. In 2006, profit at the unit fell 11% to $1.28 bn, and revenue dropped 15% to $2.9 bn. The unit at year-end oversaw $49.2 bn of assets, including $10.7 bn of Citigroup’s prop money.

Vikram Pandit is a former head of Morgan Stanley’s institutional securities division. Once considered a potential successor to former Morgan Stanley chief executive Philip Purcell, Pandit left the investment bank in March 2005 as part of an exodus of senior bankers and traders. He later founded Old Lane with his Morgan Stanley colleagues John Havens and Guru Ramkrishnan.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

Credit Suisse poaches Ritchie Capital senior management for heading Asian private equity ops

Business Standard reports that Credit Suisse has hired Harjit Bhatia from Ritchie Capital to head Credit Suisse Private Equity Asia and has roped in a team of six professionals for the same. The team comprises Hemang Raja, Rakesh Mital, Soma Ghosal Dhar, Isiah Zhang and Imelda Tham. Heath Zarin, who started Credit Suisse’s Asian private equity investment activities, will also be joining the team. Harjit Bhatia, Rakesh Mital, Isiah Zhang and Imelda Tham will be based in Hong Kong, and Hemang Raja and Soma Ghosal will be based in Mumbai.

Harjit Bhatia is joining as managing partner and head of Credit Suisse Private Equity Asia. He was till recently chairman and CEO, Asia Pacific of Ritchie Capital Management in Hong Kong. Hemang Raja and Rakesh Mital are joining as managing directors. Prior to joining Credit Suisse Hemang Raja was the head of India operations for Ritchie Capital. While Rakesh Mital worked closely with Bhatia at Ritchie Capital. Also joining the team are Soma Ghosal Dhar, previously a director at Ritchie Capital in India; Isiah Zhang worked at McKinsey in China prior to joining Ritchie Capital; and Imelda Tham, who worked at the Carlyle Group in Washington DC in real estate acquisitions before Ritchie Capital.

Indian i-banks to fight it out with foreign ones for size and talent

It has now become common knowledge that since it announced its “break-off” with Morgan Stanley, domestic investment banking major JM Financial is aggressively hunting for both size and talent. Having sold its equity broking division for a whopping $445 mn to MS, JM is now flush with funds to afford a local brokerage house to re-build the equity sales and research team. Plans are also afoot to hire around 30 research analysts over the next 12 months. On both these accounts, it will be a rough ride ahead for the venerable institution.

According to an article on The Mint, the Indian investment banking industry is facing a severe talent crunch, with the cream of the lot having been picked up by the foreign investment banks, which are landing up on the Indian corporate shore in droves. The foreign banks have been snatching talent out of the jaws of Indian recruiters, with pay packages comparable to those in other parts of the world. The article goes on to cite instances of Lehman Brothers hiring Gaurav Gupta of NM Rothschild and Blackstone hiring Anup Kapadia from HSBC India, thus highlighting the bitter feud between foreign banks themselves for skilled personnel. Certain firms like Goldman Sachs are calling in Indian expats handling overseas operations to set up and manage the Indian offices.

In all this rush for deals and dealmakers, the only ones who are smiling are the i-bankers themselves, who earlier with a salary of Rs. 8-10 lakhs can now expect the same to go up to around Rs. 35 lakhs. And anyone with an experience of 8 years plus can demand upward of Rs. 2 crores a year!

Tarun Kataria to head HSBC’s India CIB operations

The Economic Times reports that Tarun Kataria, a managing director at HSBC in Hong Kong, will move to India for heading the Indian corporate and investment banking, and capital markets operations of HSBC. Mr. Kataria is an MBA in finance from the Wharton School, and had earlier worked for Merrill Lynch and Chase Manhattan in the United States.

Warburg Pincus appoints former McKinsey executive as MD at Mumbai office

The Economic Times reports that Leo Puri, a former executive at global consulting firm McKinsey & Company, has been appointed managing director by Warburg Pincus for its India office. Mr. Puri is a post-graduate in politics, philosophy and economics from Oxford University, and was a co-leader of the financial services practice in Asia for McKinsey. He will begin at Warburg’s New York office in April, and will move to its Mumbai office later. Mr. Puri’s appointment seems to fill in the gap created by ex-MD Pulak Prasad’s exit from Warburg Pincus some time back.

Intel Capital appoints Sudheer Kuppam as MD for Asia region

Sudheer Kuppam, Director of Flash Memory and Semiconductor Sector at Intel, will join Intel Capital, the venture capital arm of Intel, as the Managing Director for India, Japan, Australasia and South-East Asia. He would be based in Bangalore and would be responsible for leading Intel’s investment strategies and expansion plans including placement of the $250 mn Intel Capital India Technology Fund.

Top management re-jig at JM Financial post-Morgan Stanley break-up

Nimesh Kampani, after the separation of his firm JM Financial with JV partner Morgan Stanley, is re-organizing his operations to exploit future opportunities in the fast-growing Indian investment banking industry, with a view to give foreign investment banks, who are opening offices in India, a run for their money. A new management structure is being formalized for the group flagship company JM Financial by Mr. Kampani, who has carved up the operations of JM Financial into seven strategic business units to be managed by independent managing directors.

The investment banking business is split into corporate finance, M&A and global capital markets. Dipti Neelkantan, 48, who joined JM as a research analyst 25 years ago, has recently risen to the rank of MD & COO of the investment banking business. She is in charge of overall operations. Two MDs have been appointed for the corporate finance division, which is scaling up its operations. Nimesh Kampani’s son Vishal Kampani, 30, and BK Bansal, 53, will be heading this division. Adi Patel, 38, has been designated as head of the M&A division, while Atul Mehra, 39, has recently been elevated to the post of MD (global capital markets). Adi Patel, Atul Mehra and BK Bansal have been with JM for more than 15 years.

JM Financial is bringing in talent from outside to run the new-age businesses. Last month, Nityanath Ghanekar, 61, joined as CEO and MD of the mutual-fund business from global consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. A few months ago, Dilip Kothari joined JM to head its private equity business from Olympus Capital. Rajeev Chitrabanu, 35, is CEO and MD of the financial services business, which includes wealth management and IPO distribution. Subodh Shinkar, 39, is the new COO of the division.

While Vipin Gupta, 35, is the MD of the fast-growing commodity business, Basant
Agarwal, 40, heads the special situations fund. JM Financial is also planning to create independent divisions for the fixed-income and research portfolios.

Edelweiss to start asset management and NBFC businesses; recruits senior people for the same

Leading domestic investment bank Edelweiss will commence asset management and non-banking financial company (NBFC) businesses by investing a total of Rs. 400 crores in the new ventures. Edelweiss would invest Rs. 300 crores for the NBFC business and another Rs. 100 crores for the asset management business. The NBFC would be looking at mortgage business and other credit instruments. Edelweiss had received in-principal approval from SEBI for the asset management company.

Edelweiss also announced the appointment of senior executives for its new business of NBFC and AMC businesses. R Balakrishnan, who will head the NBFC business, has been appointed executive vice-president of Edelweiss. Mr. Balakrishnan earlier worked as Senior VP & Head of Equity Research at DSP Merrill Lynch. Prior to Edelweiss, he was an independent consultant and part of the senior management team at credit rating agency CRISIL. For the AMC business, Edelweiss appointed Jimmy Patel as the CEO. Patel’s earlier stints include CEO and COO of JM Financial Mutual Fund and with the Principal Group, where he was in-charge of their pension initiative in India. Edelweiss also took on board Peeyoosh Chadda of Barclays as co-head of the AMC business.

Read the Business Standard article.

UTI Mutual Fund poaches top Sundaram BNP Paribas fund manager Anoop Bhaskar

The Times of India reports that Anoop Bhaskar of Sundaram BNP Paribas Mutual Fund, and one of the top fund managers in the industry, will join UTI Mutual Fund. Anoop Bhaskar is the head of equities at Chennai-based Sundaram BNP Mutual Fund. He will join UTI Mutual Fund in the same position. Bhaskar is one of the most active, and one of the better-performing fund managers in the Indian mutual fund industry.

Ex-Merrill Lynch India i-banking unit head Munesh Khanna starts $300 mn distressed assets PE fund

Former head of investment banking at Merrill Lynch India Munesh Khanna has raised $300 mn-private equity fund to invest in companies that are distressed or need management help to revive their finances.

Munesh Khanna’s new private equity firm Halcyon Group, has been started along with Narayan Seshadri, ex-head of Andersen Business Consulting in India, and Abhay Soi, who oversaw the financial restructuring group at Ernst & Young. Halcyon will target annual returns of 25%, and would make investments in asset-backed businesses, including textile and paper manufacturers.

Munesh Khanna oversaw the Indian unit of NM Rothschild and worked at Arthur Andersen in India for 17 years before he joined Merrill Lynch. Amit Chandra, his former boss at Merrill Lynch, is also starting a private-equity fund, called New Silk Route Partners.

Read more in the Business Standard article.

Rahul Bajaj buys into privately-held Bajaj holding company Bachhraj

Rahul Bajaj has acquired stake in Bachhraj and Company by buying out minority shareholders SK Birla, CK Birla and Yash Birla. Bachhraj is a privately-held holding company and is a step-down subsidiary of the main holding firm of the Bajaj Group, Bajaj Sevashram. Bachhraj holds a 24.54% stake in Bajaj Hindustan, the sugar company controlled by Shishir Bajaj. Bachhraj also has equity holdings in Bajaj Auto and Mukand. At Monday’s closing market price of the three listed companies, the direct equity held by Bachhraj in these companies would value its holding at a staggering Rs. 1093 crores. The shares have been purchased from the Birlas over the last one year by the Rahul Bajaj group.

This is significant in the wake of the recent spat that has arisen between Rahul Bajaj and Kushagra Bajaj, son of Rahul Bajaj’s younger brother Shishir Bajaj. Kushagra Bajaj has accused his uncle Rahul of trying to wrest control of the Bajaj group of companies belonging to the Shishir Bajaj faction. At the heart of the feud lies the various crossholdings of the extended Bajaj family in the numerous Bajaj group of companies.

Read the articles in The Economic Times 1 and 2.

Alagappan Murugappan returns to ICICI Securities as head of equities

Alagappan Murugappan has re-joined ICICI Securities, the investment banking division of The ICICI Group as head of equities. Prior to this, he was with private equity firm Deeva Capital where he was a partner and returns to the ICICI fold after an overall three-year stint in private equity. Before he joined ICICI Securities, Murugappan was with Cazenove, heading its Indian operations; Cazenove was primarily into equities broking. Murugappan began his career with Cazenove in London after qualifying as a solicitor in England. He holds an LLM from Cambridge University.

Murugappan was one of the three founding partners of Deeva Capital and had spent one year at Deeva. Deeva Capital is a start-up private equity firm with about $100 mn secured from international seed funding. Murugappan had left ICICI Securities in early 2004 to pursue a career in the private equity business. Then, Murugappan had joined Actis as an investment principal and was responsible for leading and coordinating fundraising activities relating to South Asia and for deal generation in India. Murugappan quit Actis to form Deeva in early 2006.

Read more in the article in AsianInvestor.net.

Amitabh Chakraborty joins Religare Securities as president of the equity business

Amitabh Chakraborty, who was heading the research team at BRICS Securities, has now joined Religare Securities Limited, a Ranbaxy group company, as President, Equity Business. He will be based out of Mumbai.

Mr. Chakraborty has been mandated for setting up the equity research team and spearheading the equity related initiatives to drive the high profile equity broking business at Religare.

Mr. Chakraborty was earlier with BRICS Securities. Prior to BRICS, he was heading the research team at Kotak Securities, from where he was sacked for an undisclosed internal code of violation.

Read the press release on Moneycontrol.com.

Deutsche names Sanjay Sharma head of India equity capital markets

Investment banking in India is bearing witness to many high-profile people movements of late. After Citigroup’s investment banking head Surojit Shome’s move to Lehman Brothers India, we now hear of Merrill Lynch old hand Sanjay Sharma quitting Merrill to lead Deutsche Bank’s Indian equity capital markets operations. Sharma’s vacancy is being filled by Sumeet Puri, who will be moving from his post as Asian equity syndicate head from Hong Kong (See Related Post).

Indian equity capital markets volume jumped 22% to more than $19 bn last year, as total investment banking revenue hit a record $413 mn. Indian stocks rose more than 45% in 2006. Deutsche ranked second in investment banking revenues behind Citigroup, with $42 mn in revenues from underwriting stock and bond deals and advising on mergers.

Investment banks like Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and UBS are expanding their
India teams as the country’s companies become bigger global players. Lehman last month poached Citigroup’s Surojit Shome as head of investment banking for India. Bankers, particularly non-resident Indians, are keen to move to Mumbai and New Delhi as top salaries approach the same levels as those in Singapore and Hong Kong, and the market yields increasingly large and interesting transactions. However, intense competition between banks has taken a bite out of fees, with equity deals only paying an average of 1.6%, compared with 2.3% for Hong Kong offerings and up to 7% for initial public offerings in the United States.

Read the article in Reuters.com.

Merrill names Sumeet Puri as head of India equity capital markets

Merrill Lynch has named Sumeet Puri as head of equity capital markets for its Indian operations as Wall Street firms rapidly expand their teams in the booming Indian capital markets. Sumeet Puri has been head of Asian execution and syndication and will also be in charge of Indian structured origination. Puri has partly spent his career in Mumbai, and is one of a growing number of bankers who are returning to India as deal volumes heat up and salaries for top talent become competitive with those in more developed markets like Hong Kong.

Merrill has increased its stake in its DSP Merrill Lynch JV in India to a controlling 90% from 40% for a consideration of $500 mn. Merrill was the fourth-ranked book-runner of Indian equity deals last year, according to market data provider Dealogic.

Indian investment banking revenues rose 23% to a record $413 mn in 2006, although fees on individual deals tend to be lower than in other markets due to intense competition. Indian equity deals had an average fee of about 1.6% last year, compared with nearly 2.3% for an average Chinese deal.

Read the article in Reuters.com.

Providence Equity Partners opens offices in Hong Kong and India

Providence Equity Partners, a US-based private equity firm, will be opening offices in Hong Kong and India. The Hong Kong office will be led by Andrew Rickards, CEO of investment bank Rothschild & Sons in Asia, as its managing director and will lead the firm’s Asian investments. He will be joined by Thura Ko, an assistant director at Rothschild Asia. The New Delhi office will be headed by Biswajit Subramanian, a managing director of Providence Equity in London who joined the firm in 2000. Subramanian led Providence Equity’s acquisition of a 15% stake in Indian wireless operator Idea Cellular Limited in October 2006. Providence invests mainly in the media, telecom and technology sectors, and is based in Providence, Rhode Island.

Read the press release here.

UTI Securities witnesses senior management exits in i-banking unit

Mumbai-based securities firm, UTI Securities, is witnessing major people exits, particularly in its investment banking division, with six senior and middle level executives resigning from the organization in the past one month. The list includes Head of Investment Banking, K Srinivas, company VP, Jinesh Mehta, VP of Broking, Sunil Nair, and VP – IPO and MF Distribution, Nirmal Rewaria.

Their resignations may prompt more junior executives to take the same route amid concerns over the prospects of the organization in the absence of top executives. Factors like lack of both focus and flexibility in decision making are cited as a few major reasons behind their leaving the organization.

Originally promoted by UTI, UTI Securities is now a subsidiary of Securities Trading Corporation of India (STCI). UTI Securities was incorporated as UTI’s 100% subsidiary in 1994. On repealing of the UTI Act, the management of the firm was transferred to the Administrator of the Specified Undertaking of UTI (UTI-I). In April 2006, the broking firm was sold to STCI for Rs. 265 crores.

UTI Securities recently completed Rs. 157 crore-IPO of Essdee Aluminium. Some of the forthcoming IPOs managed by the merchant banker include Pophiraju Industries (Rs. 38 crores), SMS Pharmaceuticals (approximately Rs. 100 crores) and Euro Ceramics (Rs. 90-100 crores).

Read more on this news in The Economic Times.
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