I-Bankers Groove across Sectors and Verticals

The Indian investment-banking (I-banking) space is witnessing a lot of churn. The stars of this segment are spreading their wings to either embrace new players or moving out of their existing verticals to join completely new sectors. These include segments like cement, executive search or even private equity.

Sample these. In the past few months, Probir Das has joined UBS as the co-managing director from JM Morgan Stanley, Saurabh Sonthalia has left the DSP asset management to join AIG Global Investment Group, Anil Chawla quit GE Commercial Finance to join DE Shaw, and Munesh Khanna, who left Enam last month, is considering offers from Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and CSFB, the I-Banking arm of Credit Suisse.

“There is convergence in I-banking skills, leading to a talent fungibility across functions,” says R Suresh, managing director, Stanton Chase. Earlier, I-banking functions existed in silos, which required separate skill-sets. Today, the ability to direct deal flows is paramount.

I-banking has become more attractive with the likes of Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse setting up their individual presence here.

Rabo India Finance, on the other hand, is re-structuring and has hired five senior level people, which include Kaushik Modak from Bank of America, Shefali Shah from Insite Equity and Jayen Shah from ABN Amro Bank. This is being done to replace the large number of professionals who left Rabo for Motilal Oswal.

UBS and Merrill Lynch are also looking to ramp up their presence in the country. “Investment banking was always hot, but now the need for people with existing contacts has increased,” says Sonal Agrawal, director, Accord Group.

Meanwhile, a natural progression for a few I-bankers is private equity. A few people who have moved into the space include Mahesh Chhabria who has 3i from Enam, Prakash Karnik who has joined IDFC from CDPQ fund. Some I-banking professionals have left to join unlikely industries. For instance, Ashish Guha left Ambit to join Heidelberg Cements, while Radhika Haribhakti left JM Morgan Stanley to join Spencer Stuart, an executive search firm.

TB Chopra has been moved from Stamford GE to GE Commercial Finance, while Pankaj Kalra has moved from Merrill Lynch, London, to head their oil and gas vertical in India. “As the revenue books grow and the potential for business being high, there is intense competition for talent,” says Sunit Mehra, managing partner, Hunt Partners.