In a case of another high-profile exit in the Indian private equity universe, Ambalika Banerji, managing director, Macquarie SBI Infrastructure Management Pte. Limited, is believed to have called it a day at the organisation. While it is not known where she is headed, August 31 was her last working day at SBI Macquarie, VCCircle has learnt.
Ambalika Banerji, who has been with Macquarie since 2002, has over 20 years experience in advisory and financing assignments, financial structuring transactions and capital restructuring in India during her career with Macquarie Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Barclays Bank and State Bank of India.
Macquarie-SBI Infrastructure Fund is the fund sponsored by State Bank of India (SBI) & Macquarie joint venture with the International Finance Corporation, the private sector lending arm of the World Bank, for investments in infrastructure projects in India.
In his response, Paul Scanlon, head, media & communications Asia, Macquarie Group of Companies, declined to comment saying the company does not comment on staff matters. Ms Banerji could not be reached for comments.
The fund has made several major investments in the infrastructure space such as the recent $304 million deal in Viom Networks and $200 million in GMR Airports Holding Pvt Ltd. It is learnt that Ambalika Banerji played a key role in the investment in GMR Airport.
To strengthen the infrastructure team, Sethuraman Venkatesh, former head of Infrastructure-India, AMP Capital, was hired by SBI Macquarie a couple of months back. Prior to joining AMP Capital in 2005, Venkatesh was the head of Indian equity research at JP Morgan in Mumbai, and has worked with Credit Suisse First Boston and Deutsche Bank.
Ambalika Banerji was designated as the managing director of SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Management Private Limited among other management team members such as Varun Bajpai, CEO, Praveen Gupta, Deputy CEO and Suresh Goyal, managing director.
There have been quite a few exits of PE professionals in recent months. In July 2010, Gul Mukhey, who led Principal Investments and Private Equity for HSBC (India), put in his papers after a 2.5-year tenure with HSBC. Another veteran, PR Srinivsan left Citigroup Venture Capital International to set up his own fund Exponentia Capital. JP Morgan's private equity arm managing director Vibhav Panandiker also exited recently. Earlier, Dinesh Tiwari, an executive director, left JP Morgan to join Renuka Ramnath's Multiples Alternate Asset Management.
