Mumbai-based Neo Group’s asset management arm, Neo Asset Management, has roped in former True North executive Rubin Chheda, as its managing director to lead the firm’s special situations credit strategy, the company said on Wednesday.
VCCircle first reported Chheda’s appointment last month.
“As a managing director at Neo Asset Management, I will be leveraging my experience in managing institutional money for India credit strategies leading the flagship special situations strategy and further enhancing and deepen the overall Neo Credit Platform,” said Chheda.
“This role perfectly aligns with Neo's vision to build a preferred alternatives platform that delivers superior risk-adjusted yields and address clients evolving income needs.”
According to the VCCircle report, Chheda will likely work alongside Puneet Jain, the chief investment officer of Neo Wealth and Asset Management, and Hemant Daga, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Neo Asset Management.
The former True North executive was one of the founding members of the private equity firm’s private credit strategy, which was launched in 2021 with the onboarding of former KKR & Co executive Kapil Singhal.
Meanwhile, True North, which raised Rs 1,000 crore as of November last year marking its first close, has wrapped up fundraising for the maiden private credit fund at about Rs 1,300 crore, VCCircle reported last month.
In his previous stints, Chheda helmed the Piramal-CPDQ Structured Credit Opportunities Fund for about half a decade. He also headed the wholesale lending NBFC (non-real estate) at Piramal Capital. Prior to that, he was also a director at Fairwinds Private Equity. He also worked in the transaction advisory and underwriting verticals at companies such as Ernst & Young, PwC, and GE Capital.
Neo Asset Management floated its maiden vehicle under the special situation strategy in June 2022 and marked its first close at Rs 625 crore in September that year. The fund’s target corpus is Rs 2,000 crore.
In an earlier conversation with VCCircle, Daga said that Neo Asset was likely to wrap up fundraising for the vehicle in the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal year, which began on April 1. Its current fundraising status is not known.
The private credit fund, Neo Special Credit Opportunities Fund, is a category-II alternative investment fund (AIF) registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). As of late February, the asset manager had secured about Rs 1,850 crore, with about half the fund’s corpus already deployed by then.
As of February, Neo Asset Management’s total assets under management was around Rs 4,500 crore, including its real assets portfolio, which is spearheaded by Abishek Goel, head of infrastructure and real estate assets funds.
The asset management and financial advisory platform of Neo Group was founded by Nitin Jain, former CEO of wealth and asset management, Edelweiss Financial Services, in October last year. Daga, former CEO of Edelweiss Asset Management, joined as co-founder and CEO of Neo Asset Management in January 2022.
