Former Deutsche Bank Asia head Gunit Chadha set to join Indostar Capital

By Ranjani Raghavan

  • 27 Oct 2016

Former Deutsche Bank Asia head Gunit Chadha is set to head Everstone Capital-backed non-banking financial institution Indostar Capital Finance, a person familiar with the development told VCCircle.

The Economic Times, which first reported the development, said Chadha will also invest Rs 120 crore in the NBFC, which may give an exit to Goldman Sachs Private Equity.

“This is purely speculative and is not something I would want to comment on,” Chadha said, when contacted by VCCircle. 

Everstone Capital, which owns a majority stake in Indostar Capital, declined to comment while Goldman Sachs PE did not respond to a request for  comments. Indostar Capital too declined to comment.

The other investors in the firm include Ashmore Group and Baer Capital Partners.

Chadha joins a list of foreign bankers who have seen opportunities in Indian NBFCs.  

Earlier this month, private equity firm KKR’s India head Sanjay Nayar and former Citigroup head of operations Vikram Sud put in Rs 100 crore in Flexiloans Technologies through their NBFC EpiMoney. 

Chadha’s former colleague, former Deutsche Bank co-head Anshu Jain also invested Rs 500 crore in Incred Finance and will join the NBFC.  

Jaspal Bindra, who took over as chairman of independent brokerage and financial services player Centrum Group in August 2016, was earlier head of Standard Chartered Bank Asia.

Former Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit was perhaps amongst the first to independently bet on a financial services company in India after leaving a large global bank. Pandit and a co-investor had in 2014 picked an effective 50% stake in the real estate lending arm of JM Financial Ltd for Rs 525 crore. 

Meanwhile, VCCircle reported earlier this year that Indostar Capital is likely to list next year, having deferred its IPO plans even as it looks to acquire more retail assets.

Indostar’s loan portfolio and net worth stood at Rs 4,265 crore and Rs 1,531 crore, respectively, as on 31 March 2016. Roughly half its loan book is from corporate financing while 40% is from funding to real estate developers. Loans against shares contribute 5.5% and SME financing the remaining.

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