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IIFL Hires Nomura’s Nipun Goel As I-bank Head; Exclusive Q&A

By VCC Staff

  • 12 May 2012

India Infoline Ltd has hired Nipun Goel, the former head of investment banking at Nomura in India, as the president of investment banking business. The banker, who has more than 15 years of investment banking experience, started with DSP Merrill Lynch which was later acquired by Bank of America.

In a market where every investment bank has been struggling to stay afloat and grow their fee pool, Goel is confident that the unmatched distribution strength of India Infoline will help it get mandates. In an interview with VCCircle, Goel claims that the equity capital markets (ECM) and structured finance mandates will be the focus areas.

Excerpts of the interview:

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On your new role:

I thinks it’s a fantastic opportunity given the kind of distribution platform that IIFL has across retail, HNI and institutional segments of investors (one of the few platforms to have a strong presence across the segments). We hope to leverage the distribution franchise for the requirements of our corporate / financial sponsor clients.

On focus on other i-banking businesses:

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I think financial sponsors segment offers us a very  interesting and huge opportunity, whether it's private equity syndication or exits (strategic or market exits). Also, the IIFL group has a very large and active presence in the non banking finance segment, which can be leveraged for structured finance opportunities. So we are primarily looking at is mandates across ECM, advisory and financing.

At a time when bulge bracket banks as well as top domestic banks are struggling to get their act together and generate revenues, what is it that will help you scale up?

I think the crux remains the wide distribution and very credible relationships that IIFL enjoys with investors/ clients. While some banks are good on the institutional side and some at retail distribution, IIFL has a strong market share across all the segments. Also, it's pertinent to note that the key management team at IIFL has been there for a very long period of time, unlike some of the global banks which have seen churn and this gives a lot of comfort to prospective clients.

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What will be your focus area?

ECM and related business ought to be a relatively low hanging fruit for a strong distribution platform like IIFL. We shall be selective about the clients that we target and then ensure that we service them across the product suite (ECM, Advisory, Structured Debt).

Which are the other businesses of the group that can be leveraged to help grow i-banking business?

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We have a very strong and old (in terms of the number of years with the firm) team on the institutional research side. This is an important element when we are talking about the kind of play we plan. The idea is to also help clients see the other side of distribution and deliver it. 

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