Mumbai-based ASK Wealth Advisors Pvt. Ltd has hired four senior executives from the private banking division of Citibank in various positions, as the advisory firm that caters to ultra-rich individuals and families expands its team.
The executives are Prakash Bulusu, Raghav Gupta, Vidushi Tandon and Amit Srivastava, a person directly aware of the development told VCCircle.
Bulusu and Gupta, who are joining ASK as managing partners, were directors and heads of south and north India, respectively, at Citibank’s private banking division.
Bulusu has previously worked with Principal PNB Asset Management Company and Zurich Asset Management. Gupta, an economics graduate from St Stephens College, joined Citibank in 2006 from Kotak Mahindra Bank to set up the private banking division in north India. He has previously worked with ANZ Grindlays and JM Morgan Stanley.
Tandon, a vice president with Citi private banking, will join ASK Wealth after six years with Citi and has a decade of wealth management experience. Before Citi, Vidushi worked with HSBC as a vice president in the wealth management division. Prior to that, the MBA graduate from Amity Business School worked as a financial consultant with Standard Chartered Bank for about a year and two years with Citibank.
Srivastava managed investments for about eight years with Citibank. Previously, he worked with HDFC Bank, Barclays Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and IDBI Bank.
ASK had, two years ago, recruited two senior executives to strengthen its top management. It had hired Deepak Rattan as the chief operating officer of the private wealth advisory business from Barclays Wealth & Investment Management and Leena Wakankar as head of human resources from ICICI Ventures.
In other appointments in the asset management sector, diversified financial services firm IDFC Ltd named Vishal Kapoor as the CEO of IDFC Asset Management Company in July. In June, Avendus Wealth Management, a subsidiary of local investment bank Avendus Capital, appointed Swati Singh as an executive director and head of fixed income from IIFL Wealth Management.
ASK Group is a diversified financial services group. Since 2007, it has been providing financial planning and wealth advisory services to individuals and trusts. It also has a real estate private equity fund business.
The group has assets of over Rs 23,000 crore ($4.1 billion) across seven offices in India. It also has an office in Dubai, which manages clients in the Middle East and Africa, and an office in Singapore, which makes real estate and equity investments in India.
The group's real estate investment arm, ASK Property Investment Advisors, plans to set up a non-banking financial company to diversify its product offerings.
ASK’s decision to ramp up its manpower strength comes after a slew of foreign players exited the country. Some foreign firms which have shut their private banking or wealth management business include HSBC, UBS and Morgan Stanley. Last year, Royal Bank of Scotland agreed to transfer its India private banking business to Sanctum Wealth Management.
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