Diversified financial services firm Edelweiss Group has announced promotion of Ashish Kehair as the new managing director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Edelweiss Wealth Management (EWM).
The move comes less than a year after Asia-focused private equity firm PAG Asia took control of EWM, an arm of Mumbai-based Edelweiss Financial Services.
Kehair will replace Nitin Jain who is departing the organisation after a transition period to pursue his entrepreneurial interests.
Jain had joined the Edelweiss Group in 2004 and worked in different departments including capital markets, analytics, principal strategies, among others.
He was co-heading Edelweiss Global Wealth & Asset Management for over five years and was made the MD and CEO of the wealth management business in July last year.
Earlier this year, Jain had told VCCircle that EWM plans to go public in the next 12-15 months.
Kehair as the new chief will lead the strategic initiatives and business operations for EWM and reporting to the Board of Directors.
The appointment is subject to regulatory approvals, the company said in a statement.
Prior to this, Kehair served as the head of Edelweiss’ wealth management division since 2017. In that role, he was responsible for expanding assets under advisory.
Earlier, he had held executive positions with IDFC Bank and ICICI Securities.
In March, PAG completed acquisition of 61.5% stake in EWM through primary and secondary investments worth Rs 2,366 crore ($326 million) as announced in August 2020.
Edelweiss Group continues to hold around 38.5% stake in EWM with the option to increase it further up to approximately 44%.
Around the same time, EWM launched its third fund of target corpus Rs 5,000 crore ($700 million) that aims to bet on late-stage private equity and pre-IPO firms.
EWM has assets under advisory of over $22.5 billion servicing around 728,400 affluent and high networth individuals and about 2,500 of India’s wealthiest families.
It reported revenues at Rs 1,043 crore and profit after tax of Rs 245 crore for FY21.
The firm provides a range of wealth management services, including investment advisory, estate planning, investment management, securities and broking for individuals and institutions, professional investors and family offices.
