Rabo rejigs investment banking operations

Rabo India Finance (RIF), the 100 per cent subsidiary of Rabobank International, has restructured its investment banking operations with a view to capitalising its category-1 merchant banking licence as well as expanding its advisory services businesses.

The leading non-banking finance company (NBFC) has also announced a slew of top-level appointments, including three executive directors and two directors, and is expected to add another 15-20 high-level personnel within the next two months.

RIF Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Sanjiv Bhasin told PTI on Monday that the investment banking operations have now been carved into two new units "� the capital markets division and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) division, while the existing risk management unit is expected to be invested with fresh vigour.

All three units will be headed by executive directors while two directors "� one each in Delhi and Mumbai "� have been specially appointed to oversee the capital markets business.

"As an NBFC, we have to keep constantly evolving and providing what the market needs. We have to constantly innovate and come up with interesting product suites, and this restructuring will help us achieve this," said Bhasin.

RIF's strategy is to grow its franchise that at present focuses on advisory services in core competencies such as food and agri business, life sciences, telecom, media and IT, while strongly leveraging its category-1 merchant banking licence in the investment banking sector.

The three executive directors are Kaushik Modak (from Bank of America), Shefali Shah (InSite Equity) and Hans Wortelboer (Rabobank Nederland), who will head the capital markets, M&A and risk management divisions, respectively.

The two directors for the capital markets unit "� Rahul Chander (from DEG) and Jayen Shah (ABN Amro Bank) "� will be based in Delhi and Mumbai, respectively.

The capital markets unit will essentially focus on product offerings that will move across the life-cycle of a corporate and offer holistic financial solutions starting at the pre-growth stage, all growth capital products "�private equity, debt, foreign currency debt, FCCBs, etc "� restructuring, financing before gradually moving on to equity in the form of ADRs and GDRs.

The M&A division will focus on origination and implementation of a renewed focus at M&A deals, especially in the large corporates segment.