Xander revamps NBFC board after CEO exit

The Xander Group Inc. on Tuesday said it has appointed three new directors to the board of its non-banking financial company (NBFC) Xander Finance Ltd, as part of a larger reorientation of the NBFC’s strategic goals, including a revamp of its Indian management team.

Rajesh Jogi, Tariq Chinoy and Varun Gopinath have joined the newly recast board as part of the company’s plan to ramp up its pursuit of emerging opportunities in the financial services sector in India. Rohan Sikri, senior partner at Xander Group will continue as chairperson of Xander Finance’s board.

The board recast comes soon after the resignation of Amar Merani, who was the chief executive officer of Xander Finance since 2012. Last week, IIFL Asset Management Co. (AMC) said it has appointed Amar Merani as head of real estate strategy, where he will lead the team in managing investments and building the company’s client base.

Most real estate focused NBFCs that provided a crucial financial lifeline to developers have drastically cut down exposure since the IL&FS fiasco in 2018.

Xander said Jogi is a risk management professional with over 30 years' experience in corporate, institutional, retail and private banking sectors, while Chinoy has experience of working in the Indian asset management industry, including in private and public equity. Gopinath has been portfolio operations director at Xander since October 2020.

The board revamping exercise commenced last year at the request of Xander Partnership, which remains the company’s largest and controlling, shareholder.

“At heart we remain an entrepreneurial group and every platform we sponsor should always reflect that. Adding depth and breadth to the Xander Finance board is a key first step in ensuring our well-capitalized Indian NBFC remains nimble in its pursuit of new opportunities, while retaining the robustness in governance we expect from any Xander venture. Even though the Indian financial services opportunity is large, for ventures to scale local management needs to demonstrate entrepreneurial hunger and alignment of interest with shareholders,” said Sid Yog, founder, Xander Group.