VCCircle

ICICI Venture is on a hiring mode at the senior level. After wooing back Jayanta Banerjee from Lehman Brothers, the Mumbai-based buyout fund has roped in former Pepsi CEO in India Rajeev Bakshi as the joint managing director. According to The Economic Times, Bakshi will take charge in February or March next year. Bakshi was the CEO of Cadbury in India in the 1990s, and had joined Pepsi in 2001. He was moved out of India to the beverage giant's Hong Kong office last year following a massive reshuffle. (Now Bakshi has followed his former rival Sanjiv Gupta, ex-Coke CEO in India, who joined Indivision Capital as a managing director after quitting the company).
ICICI Venture CEO and MD Renuka Ramnath has been quoted as saying by the paper: “It is consistent with our strategy of consolidating diversity of experience within ICICI Venture. We look at Rajeev Bakshi as one with enough management experience in terms of running companies and dealing with a whole host of issues as a leader.”
ICICI Venture is planning to become India's largest fund with $10 billion under management by 2010. Currently, it has about about $2.5 billion under management.
Meanwhile, there are reports that Jagdish Khattar, the outgoing managing director of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, is considering a position in a private equity fund. Mint quotes Khattar as saying: “It’s one of the several options I’m considering...I haven’t made up my mind.” Earlier reports suggested that Khattar might turn an entrepreneur, and he was looking at a multi-brand auto sales and service chain along the lines of the AutoNation of the US. It seems Khattar's plans are not yet firmed up.
Interestingly, some large private equity funds like KKR and Cerberus Capital Management are looking to set up shop in India, and are probably scouting for CEOs. The buzz is that Citigroup's Sanjay Nayar is being considered for KKR's top job in India, as we reported a few days ago.
Several Indian top execs were hired by global funds. Vivek Paul, former vice chairman of Wipro Ltd, joined Texas Pacific Group as a global partner. Akhil Gupta, former COO of Reliance Communications, joined as head of private equity fund Blackstone in India. Akshay Bhargava, the former head of Infosys BPO (earlier known as Progeon) has joined 3i as a partner. Rajiv Kaul, former Microsoft MD in India, had also joined 3i, but quit soon after.