Reuters
Mumbai: Citigroup in India has poached Vikas Khattar, the director of equity capital markets at Merrill Lynch’s Indian unit, an industry source said.
After almost 11 years at DSP Merrill Lynch, Mumbai-based Khattar will start at Citigroup early next month, where he will join his former colleague Ravi Kapoor, the source said.
A Merrill spokeswoman confirmed Khattar had resigned.
Khattar’s departure comes despite DSP Merrill Lynch being the lead arranger of two major equity deals — the initial public offering of real estate company DLF Ltd in June, which is likely to be the largest by an Indian company, and a record $5 billion (Rs20,311 crore) raising by ICICI Bank that was announced last month.
Merrill, which in December 2005 agreed to pay $500 million to increase its stake in DSP Merrill Lynch to 90% from 40%, had seen some high profile exits since then, including managing director and head of investment banking Munesh Khanna, head of global markets and investment banking Amit Chandra and head of equity markets Sanjay Sharma.
Indian investment banking revenues are set to touch record levels in 2007, after climbing 23% in 2006 to $413 million according to research firm Dealogic.
Investment banks in India are on a hiring spree as global banks such as Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse expand to get a cut of the fees, which are driven by record fund raising and mergers and acquisitions.