London-headquartered financial group London Stock Exchange appointed Jasmine Arora as head of primary markets for India, Africa and Middle East, it said on Monday.
Arora assumes the role from Ibukun Adebayo who was transferred to LSEG's subsidiary International Development group in 2015. She will work alongside Marcus Stuttard, head of UK primary market; Luca Peyrano, head of Europe primary markets; Jon Edwards, head of Asia-Pacific primary markets; and Alexander Lehmann who heads primary markets at Americas.
AIM is LSE’s international market which helps smaller companies look for growth capital. Since its launch in 1995, over 3,600 companies have listed on the platform. While some Indian companies have also gone public on AIM market to raise institutional capital in an exchange with less onerous corporate governance norms, it has lost the charm of late as local firms tapped on to a new pool of capital to raise money back home, including the SME exchanges and QIPs by already listed firms.
The platform has also taken a hit on listings due to other reasons and new listings on AIM came down to 39 in 2015 from 85 in 2014.
Arora, who has her own consulting business, has more than 19 years of multi-jurisdictional experience advising companies and institutional investors. She has worked for 14 years in corporate finance, institutional equity sales and wealth management at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS in the UK, Russia and South Africa.
“We are delighted that Jasmine Arora has joined to lead our primary market efforts in India, the Middle East and Africa. We remain the most internationally focused exchange group with long-standing ties with these markets. With Jasmine’s leadership, we intend to strengthen these ties, attracting more international firms to our markets,’’ said John Millar, head of primary markets, LSEG.
LSEG’s India connection
Arora, who has also been associated with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce, is not the only link LSEG has with India. Last year, LSEG had struck a deal with Yes Bank, India’s fifth-largest private lender, for listing of green bonds on London Stock Exchange. The group had also collaborated with NSE for setting up a joint research centre.
