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Exclusive: We heard about this last week from our sources. It turns out that veteran investment banker turned private equity investor Amit Chandra has left New Silk Route or NSR Advisors. The fund was co-founded by ex-Mckinsey chairman Rajat Gupta, Parag Saxena of Vedanta Capital, and Chandra himself. NSR has $1 billion under management, and Parag Saxena recently said that they plan to hike the fund size to $1.5 billion (a 70 per cent of which will be invested in India).
Chandra is believed to have quit after it turned out that he was only one among the equals managing the fund in India (which means your economic interest in the firm may also be equal). The other partners of NSR in India are Anand Dorairaj, Darius Pandole, Vivek Seth and Jacob Mathews.
Chandra left a 13-year top ranking investment banking career at DSP Merrill Lynch last year to join New Silk Route. He was expected to be heading Indian operations. It's not known what Chandra's plans are. At NSR, Chandra was instrumental in doing deals like Aster Infrastructure and Aster Tower. The fund has also invested in INX Media, the upcoming TV network.
The 39-year old had worked briefly as a consultant in 1993-94, and before his MBA, he worked for Larsen & Toubro, a leading Indian engineering and construction company.
At DSPML, Chandra’s main role was to build relationships, and he had executed some of the largest deals for the firm. Chandra joined the board of DSPML in 2004. He received his MBA in Finance and Strategy from Boston College and holds a Bachelors Degree Engineering (Electrical), from VJTI (University of Bombay).