UK’s development finance institution CDC Group Plc has roped in Alagappan Murugappan, known as Muru, as managing director for its Asia funds team. According to a statement, Murugappan will join CDC in October and replaces Anubha Shrivastava, who left the firm last year.
Murugappan will manage the team responsible for the organisation’s fund investments across its target geography of South Asia, as well as its pre-existing investments in China and Southeast Asia.
For the last two years, Murugappan has been CEO of the infrastructure-focused private equity fund being managed by UTI Capital, a subsidiary of UTI AMC, one of India’s largest asset management companies.
Before UTI Capital, Murugappan was head of investment banking and executive director on the board of ICICI Securities where he was involved in fundraisings of over $10 billion through public issues and private placements for clients, including the Indian government as well as large and small cap companies.
Murugappan worked at emerging market private equity major Actis (a spin-out from CDC) from 2004 until 2006 as a principal in its India office. He helped raise Actis’ first third-party fund and worked on deal generation and execution.
Before Actis, he worked in corporate finance with Cazenove, helping set up an investment banking business in India. Murugappan has a master’s in Law from Cambridge University.
The appointment comes after the change in CDC's strategy. The CDC Group focused on fund-of-fund investments across Asia and Africa, but recently changed its strategy to focus only on South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The firm is now looking to make debt and direct investments in these geographies as opposed to only a limited partner role in private equity/venture capital funds.
India is the single-largest market in terms of exposure for the CDC Group and it is one of the largest LP investors in Indian private equity with over $680 million invested and $1.1 billion committed.
“Muru has a wealth of hands-on investment experience in India and I am delighted that he’s joining CDC to lead our Asia funds team. Our new strategy means we have more ways than ever of getting capital into businesses in South Asia, including by investing directly. However, we remain committed to supporting funds investment in the region," said CDC’s chief executive Diana Noble.
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(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
