The new man at NSEL

P R Ramesh, set to take the reins at the National Spot Exchange (NSEL) as an Officer on Special Duty, is an old hand from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), having worked in various roles spanning surveillance, demutualisation of exchanges and corporate finance for over a decade.

He has also worked with Financial Technologies.

In is new role, he will have his hands full. But he says he will be just one of the several officers the exchange is planning to appoint. "I will be one of them. To say I am going to have powers of a CEO is not correct," Ramesh told Business Standard soon after his appointment.

However, the NSEL statement suggests his role will be key. "The Board of NSEL has appointed Mr P R Ramesh as the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to exercise all powers of a CEO of the Company and will report to the Board directly," said the statement.

"Our first priority would be to understand and investigate what has happened in the NSEL matter... The FMC wanted to conduct a forensic investigation into the matter for which a team of three or four independent officers have been appointed," said Ramesh.

He added it will be a special assignment and not a full-time job. "There is going to be a lot of litigation work. Earlier, I was with Bahrain Financial Exchange. That is why they have called me." Ramesh had worked briefly as the chief compliance officer of the Bahrain Exchange is also owned by the Financial Technologies group, NSEL's promoter.

Brokers, however, are not very confident about the change of guard. Some are concerned about Ramesh's past involvement with the group and his closeness to former Sebi chairman G N Bajpai, now an advisor to the FT group.

S K Saraf, conveyor, NSEL Investors Forum, said: "We are not concerned with the new appointments. We only hope that Jignesh Shah (chairman of NSEL) pays up."

Born in 1963, he did schooling at the Hindu Senior Secondary School, Chennai. He spent over a decade at Sebi after graduating from the University of Madras in 1988 - two years before Jignesh Shah joined the Bombay Stock Exchange and began his journey as an exchange business entrepreneur. As Jignesh built his empire, Ramesh was involved in investigations and quasi-judicial proceedings of cases dealing with the equity market.

He has several firsts to his name in corporate finance as well. He was involved in India's first book building initial public offering, the first buy back offer and listing of the first reverse merger. He was also involved in the country's first French auction of a follow on public offer and the first qualified institutional placement of a multi-option bond offering, according to a profile related to his role as senior consultant with Economic Laws Practice, a corporate law firm.

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In Sebi, he worked as chief of the corporate finance division and helped with the drafting of several key regulations including the takeover code, regulations for foreign institutional investors and rules governing collective investment schemes.

He was also chief of the Sebi chairman's office where he dealt with the committees that drafted Sebi policy. He was also chief of the international division at Sebi, and its representative at the International Organization of Securities Commissions, an international body for securities regulators.