Vikram Pandit Does An Arshad Zakaria; Scouting For Investment Opportunities In India For His New Private Equity Fund
Following in the footsteps of Arshad Zakaria (ex-Merrill Lynch and now New Vernon) is another ex-global honcho of Morgan Stanley. Vikram Pandit, who quit the investment banking firm in March 2005, is now back in India scouting for investment opportunities. Pandit is floating a yet-to-be named private equity firm.
His proposed fund, or ‘pool of capital’ will have a flexible character that will also look at the fixed income market and opportunities in distressed assets in India.
(Vikram Pandit smiling away)
“Cycles (in most industrial sectors) have shortened,” Morgan Stanley’s former head of institutional securities told ET during his visit here. “Opportunities come and go. We want to be flexible so that we can participate in the growth of such sectors,” reports The Economic Times (Via TMCNet)
The fund will have 24 partners drawn from various organisations including Morgan Stanley, and is still recruting. “There could be many from India as well,” he added.
Pandit’s focus areas of investment will be infrastructure, “any sector that is related to consumers”, and financial sector. “There is considerable appetite for Indian debt, but there is need for more developed regulations.”
