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TMT-focused investment bank Raine enters India, hires former UBS exec as head

By Ranjani Raghavan

  • 05 Apr 2017
TMT-focused investment bank Raine enters India, hires former UBS exec as head
Credit: Thinkstock

Technology, media and telecommunications (TMT)-focused investment bank The Raine Group has hired former head of India investment banking at UBS Gaurav Mehta to spearhead its Indian operations.

The US-based bank is opening an office in Mumbai and will start operations in the country by early May, it said in a statement.

Raine will operate through a newly-formed Indian subsidiary which is being established, it said.

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“India has long been an important geography for Raine. We are seeing an increasing amount of M&A and investment activity in the TMT space as well as potential expansion opportunities for our portfolio companies,” said Brandon Gardner, president of Raine.

“Over the past few years, we have witnessed significant growth in the telecom and media sectors. Raine is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the opportunity in India,” Mehta said.

Raine—which has offices in five other locations, including New York, London, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Shanghai—previously advised SoftBank when it initially invested in Ola Cabs and YuppTV when it raised funds from Emerald Media.

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At UBS, Mehta focused on the TMT space, advising clients such as Bharti Airtel, Bharti Infratel, Reliance Communications, Videocon d2h and Flipkart. Before joining UBS, he worked with Morgan Stanley, handling clients belonging to telecom and real estate segments.

Raine joins a few other technology-focused global investment banks that entered India over the last five years.

In April 2012, California-based boutique M&A advisory firm Martin Wolf, which operates as martinwolf, entered India and set up its first office in Bangalore. It also roped in Gaurav Sharma from IBM Global Business Services to head its India operations.

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In May 2012, US-based Signal Hill Capital Group LLC started an investment banking advisory firm in India. It also hired Klaas Oskam, director (investment banking) with Ernst & Young India, to head the venture, Signal Hill Capital Advisory India Pvt. Ltd.

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