MUMBAI: Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) plans to scale up its corporate finance team in India and expand into new sectors, as the New York-based consulting firm positions itself to capture a rise in dealmaking and sustained capital inflows into the country, senior executives said.
MUMBAI: Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) plans to scale up its corporate finance team in India and expand into new sectors, as the New York-based consulting firm positions itself to capture a rise in dealmaking and sustained capital inflows into the country, senior executives said.
The expansion comes amid a shift in global investor strategy towards long-term capital deployment in India, driven by strong underlying fundamentals, high-growth prospects and elevated public market valuations that are pushing deal activity, including cross-border transactions.
The expansion comes amid a shift in global investor strategy towards long-term capital deployment in India, driven by strong underlying fundamentals, high-growth prospects and elevated public market valuations that are pushing deal activity, including cross-border transactions.
“We are building a highly sector-specialized corporate finance team, that integrates seamlessly with the firm’s other offerings,” said Mohit Khullar, managing director and head of corporate finance at Alvarez & Marsal India.
The firm’s corporate finance practice currently spans consumer, industrials, healthcare and pharma, with the recent addition of Nitin Lath as managing director for the sector.
“We will specialize within pharma, with a strong focus on Indian branded formulations, niche generics and speciality pharma, as well as CDMOs (contract development and manufacturing organization) and APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients),” Lath said. “The pharma industry is undergoing a period of transformation, with several players re evaluating their business models and actively pursuing large M&A opportunities, including cross border transactions across the US and Europe.”
Khullar said the firm will also expand into additional sectors such as financial services and technology in the coming months. “We continue to invest in talent. We are currently a 40-member team with four managing directors (MD), and as we build out these sectors, we expect to add two more MDs, with the overall team scaling to 60-70 bankers over the next 12-18 months,” he said.
The hiring push follows strong growth in the firm’s India business.
“Last year, A&M’s India business grew 64% and we will grow by another 70% this year,” said said Himanshu Bajaj, managing director & head of A&M India and Global Capability Centre (GCC), without disclosing absolute figures.
"Each of the practices we have here is growing well for us, with the corporate finance vertical leading that growth. We are scaling up our teams across different areas including forensics, so our future growth prospects are largely pinned to how fast we can get talent across verticals,” Bajaj added.
The firm is also evaluating the introduction of some of its global practices, including public markets and private equity secondaries, in India.
“We are also evaluating the introduction of these practices in India over time, given the increasing demand for these capabilities,” Khullar said. “In secondaries, we see a growing opportunity to support private equity players with continuation vehicles and liquidity solutions, a trend that is gaining traction in India.”
In India, A&M competes with Big Four firms such as Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC, along with strategy consulting firms including McKinsey, BCG and Bain.
Capital surge
India’s growing appeal to global capital is reflected in rising private market activity.
Last month, McKinsey said the country has emerged as an increasingly attractive destination for limited partner (LP) allocators, with regional weight increasing amid China’s slowdown. Private equity and venture capital investments expanded 1.6-fold to $207 billion between 2016–20 and 2021–25, while exits more than doubled to around $120 billion.
Deal momentum has also picked up across inbound and outbound transactions. On Monday, India’s largest drugmaker Sun Pharmaceutical Industries announced the acquisition of US-based Organon & Co. in a deal worth $11.75 billion, among the largest overseas acquisitions by an Indian company.
Mint reported that last year saw 99 inbound deals worth $28.9 billion and 135 outbound transactions valued at $16 billion, according to Venture Intelligence. Recent transactions include MUFG’s $4.4 billion stake in Shriram Finance, Emirates NBD’s majority stake acquisition of RBL Bank, and Tata Motors’ $4.5 billion acquisition of Iveco.
Alongside institutional capital, new domestic pools are also expanding. “Moreover, India has seen the emergence of new pools of capital, particularly family offices, which are becoming increasingly active beyond the pre-IPO space and into private markets,” Khullar said. “Cheque sizes have scaled meaningfully, with several large groups moving from $5-10 million to $50 million or more.”
This shift is also driving a rise in control-oriented transactions. “We are seeing a clear increase in majority-led platform investments across sectors,” Khullar said. “While minority transactions continue, investors are increasingly pursuing control positions to drive operational value and retain greater flexibility on exits.”
“It’s a great opportunity to create synergies as it has cross-sale, procurement, common management cost and marketing opportunities,” he said, adding it may also make financial sense to create these platforms as the profitability of the combined assets is often higher than the standalone entities. “These options have enabled investors with higher returns and greater value creation.”