It's raining dollars for I-bankers- The Economic Times
It's raining dollars for I-bankersAdd to Clippings
GEORGE SMITH ALEXANDER
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2006 03:57:56 AM]
MUMBAI: Global investment banks making a late entry into India are pushing up salaries to multi-million dollar level while creating a churn in the industry. V Anantharaman, who heads investment banking in StanChart India, is slated to take over as the head of investment banking for Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) in India.
If sources are to be believed, he is likely to be one of the highest paid bankers in town with a package of around $2m.
International players like CSFB, Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers have opened shop in the country this year. Of these, Goldman has been on a major recruitment spree and now CSFB and Lehman have also joined the race. Goldman has taken in around 35 people on board in India. This is the second major hire by CSFB in India after Mihir Doshi who has been appointed as the head of CSFB’s business in India.
Mr Anatharaman is currently the MD, corporate finance and advisory for StanChart in India. A formal announcement is likely to be made this week. Prahlad Shantigram, who is also the MD, corporate finance in StanChart, will take over Mr Ananthraman’s responsibilities in StanChart.
According to sources, the investment banking team in India of CSFB is likely to be small and will rely more on its global and Asian network. It is also in the process of bringing in a senior banker to kick off its securities business in the country.
It has already bought in Nilesh Jasani, who was head of research for the firm in Taiwan as head of research for India. After facing a series of regulatory problems four years ago, the Swiss banking major is looking at offering the whole suite of investment banking products and also at the options of a non-banking finance company (NBFC) in the country.
Credit Suisse had last year opened a non-funded NBFC — Credit Suisse Consulting (India) — to target high networth individuals in the country. As a part of the global revamp, all operations of the group in India would be rebranded under the Credit Suisse brand name.
Recently, Munesh Khanna, moved to join DSP Merrill Lynch as head of investment banking. Sunil Sanghai, former executive director at JM Morgan Stanley, moved to a key position in Goldman Sachs. Mr Ananthraman had joined StanChart in the latter half of ’03. StanChart has been focusing more on cross-border mergers and acquisitions rather than domestic M&As.
In fact, last year and also this year it is among the top three investment bankers in this category. The outfit currently has 13 i-bankers. With the entry of these new players in the country, salaries of investment bankers have seen a quantum jump in the last one year.
Pay packets of investment banking heads have jumped from around Rs 2.5 crore to over a million dollar, depending on negotiations. Similarly, salaries of bankers lower down have also seen a quantum jump.
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