ICICI Bank Ltd made top-level management changes on Friday naming Anup Bagchi as head of retail banking as veteran banker and board member Rajiv Sabharwal decided to quit the country’s top private lender.
Sabharwal told VCCircle he would continue to be in the financial services space, and is considering options including taking up entrepreneurship.
Bagchi, who is currently managing director and CEO of the bank’s investment banking and brokerage arm ICICI Securities Ltd, will also become executive director to take over the seat vacated by Sabharwal.
VCCircle had first reported on 20 September that Sabharwal is on his way out of ICICI and is likely to join private equity firm India Value Fund Advisors (IVFA) as part of a larger deal.
Baring Private Equity Asia and home-grown PE firm IVFA are in the last leg of sealing a mega deal to acquire ICICI Home Finance Ltd, the mortgage arm of the country’s top private lender. Three independent persons familiar with the development had previously told VCCircle that the PE firms are looking to bring Sabharwal on board with a dual role.
“As a part of the arrangement, he might join IVFA to oversee its investments. As and when it happens, he would also be running the show for home finance venture (directly or as executive chairman) besides guiding other portfolio companies of the PE firm,†one of the persons cited above had said last month.
ICICI Bank spokesperson and Sabharwal had vehemently denied any such moves last month.
On Friday, the bank said Sabharwal has decided to move out of ICICI Bank but will continue as a director on the board till 31 January.
On heading ICICI Home Finance, Sabharwal said the deal is yet to conclude and that his next move would have nothing to do with the bank’s housing finance business. However, he said joining IVFA is among possible options.
The 52-year-old mechanical engineer from IIT Delhi who had a short stint as a trainee engineer with Union Carbide before doing his MBA from IIM Lucknow, had spent a little over a year with Sequoia Capital in 2009-10.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Sabharwal was an executive director at Sequoia and was responsible for 'identifying and nurturing investments'.
In his career spanning over two decades, he has worked with ICICI Group for over 16 years in two stints. He is known to be closely associated with scaling up ICICI Home Finance. He has also been associated with companies such as Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Co, SRF Finance and GE Capital.
ICICI Bank said Bagchi will take over as the head of retail banking from 1 November and will join the board as an executive director from 1 February, 2017 for five years.
Bagchi has been with ICICI group for 24 years and worked across retail banking, corporate and investment banking and treasury. In his previous key roles, he has been managing director and CEO of ICICI Securities since May 2011. He was also involved in development of the bank’s online trading and internet banking platforms. He had also served as a director of Stock Holding Corporation of India Ltd from June 2007 to January 2008.
Bagchi would be replaced by Shilpa Kumar as managing director and CEO of ICICI Securities from November 2016. At present, she is group executive and head - markets and proprietary trading at ICICI Bank.
Kumar is a management graduate from IIM Calcutta and started her career with ICICI in 1989, in its treasury department. She worked briefly in the strategy team before moving on to the bank’s corporate finance and project finance functions.
Kumar would be replaced by B Prasanna as the bank's group executive and head - markets and proprietary trading from November. He has been managing director and CEO, ICICI Securities Primary Dealership Ltd since 2008 and has been with the group since 1993. He would report to NS Kannan, the bank’s executive director. He would also continue to be non-executive vice chairman of ICICI Securities Primary Dealership team.
Subsequently, Shailendra Jhingan would be appointed as managing director and CEO, ICICI Securities Primary Dealership. At present, he leads the corporate bonds business at ICICI Securities Primary Dealership.
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