Hedge funds dominate IIM-A placements

Hedge funds, private equity firms and MNC conglomerates have dominated the first two days of placements at the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A). Traditional favourites, consulting companies and investment bankers, have had to take a back seat.

Companies like Booz Allen Hamilton, UK, which has not been attending the placement since the last few years, have come back this year.

Some of the new companies that arrived at IIM-A campus for the first time included Archeus Capital, Bain and Company, the treasury division of General Motors, LNM Group, Marakon Associates and Tamasek Holdings.

The other top companies that made it to the IIM-A campus for day zero recruitments included A T Kearney, Barclays Capital, Boston Consulting Group, Capital One, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, International Finance Corporation, JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers, McKinsey & Company, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and UBS.

Commenting on the trend of more hedge fund companies and private equity firms arriving at IIM-A, the institute's director Bakul Dholakia said: "Undercurrents of this trend were there for the past few years. The concept is growing fast and will increase further," he said.

Surpassing all previous pay package records, Ravi Singhvi, a student of the 2003-05 batch of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), bagged an overseas pay package of $1.52 lakh on day zero of the summer placements of IIM-A.

The highest salary at the entry level for an Indian posting at day zero was Rs 13 lakh offered by McKinsey and Company. Last year's highest salary at the entry level for an Indian posting was Rs 12 lakh and that was also offered by McKinsey.

This year also saw pre placement offers more than double to 86 from 41 last year and acceptances surge to 58 on day zero, up 61 per cent from 36 last year.

Dholakia attributed the record salary packages offered at Placement 2005 to an upswing in both the domestic and global economy. There has been a five per cent growth in the global economy and an eight per cent growth in India, the director said.

"The general trend is that the premium segment growth is the fastest when the economy grows and it would be fair to say that IIM-A operates in the premium segment," he added.

Asked whether the issue of the fringe benefits tax will take a toll on IIM-A's summer placements, Dholakia said, while fringe benefits tax would not have affected overseas placements anyway, the issue will not take a toll on IIM-A's domestic summer placements 2005.

This is the first time that such a large placement is being undertaken, not just at the IIMs but at any B-school in the country. From 161 PGP students and 26 agri business management students last year, the number of PGP students has gone up to 250 this year.