Billionaire Ajay Piramal-owned Piramal Enterprises Ltd has roped in former global private equity KKR & Co's executive Rupen Jhaveri as its Group President, the company said on Wednesday.
In August, VCCircle had reported that Jhaveri, managing director of private equity at KKR India, was set to resign after an over twelve-year stint at the private equity firm. Jhaveri had joined KKR in 2009, as part of its founding team in India.
At Piramal, Jhaveri will be looking after financial services business of the Group, the company said in a statement. Jhaveri will be responsible for business development, strategy, mergers and acquisitions, capital allocation and corporate finance, it added.
Jhaveri will take charge from 24 January 2022, the statement further said.
In October, Piramal Enterprises had said that the company would demerge its financial services and pharmaceuticals operations after the company acquired debt-laden housing finance company Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DFHL).
The non-banking finance company (NBFC) of the Piramal Group, offers home lending, small business lending, construction finance and digital embedded finance, the company said adding that the financial services arm is further looking to expand its footprint and counts CDPQ, Bain Capital, Apollo Global Management, CPPIB and IFC (International Finance Corporation), among others as its partners.
Jhaveri had joined KKR in 2009 and has been a member of the India investing team since its founding.
He has led investments in Alliance Tires, Magma Fincorp (formerly Poonawalla Finance), Dalmia Cement, Max Financial Services, Emerald Media, SBI Life Insurance, Bharti Infratel, HDFC Ltd, Ramky Enviro Engineers, Jio Platforms and Reliance Retail, according to the statement. Before joining KKR, Jhaveri was with Goldman Sachs & Co in its Principal Investment Area (PIA) and Warburg Pincus.
“I welcome this opportunity to work closely with the Piramal Enterprises team to further enhance the company’s vision of being at the forefront of the rapidly evolving financial services landscape in India. Piramal Enterprises is extremely well positioned post its Rs 18,500 crore capital raise, the recent DHFL acquisition and its significant focus to scale up its digitally led retail franchise,” said Jhaveri.
Jhaveri is a former state-level tennis player and captain of the Cricket Club of India team according to Fortune India.
A holder of B.S., magna cum laude, from Leonard N. Stern School of Business of New York University, Jhaveri is also a member of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)’s Corporate Governance Council and the Global Investor Council of Indian Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (IVCA).
“Jhaveri brings with him rich experience of investing and managing multiple businesses over the past two decades. Rupen is just one example of our endeavour to create a world class team that will help PEL become one of India’s largest and most respected financial services institutions,” said Anand Piramal, executive director, Piramal Group.
