Steel tycoon Sajjan Jindal’s JSW Group hired Standard Chartered Plc banker Kaustubh Kulkarni to head dealmaking, people with knowledge of the matter said, as the Indian conglomerate eyes stressed asset investments.
Mumbai-based Kulkarni was named head of mergers and acquisitions and strategic financing for JSW, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. He left Standard Chartered, where he was a managing director covering credit and investor sales, earlier this month, the people said.
JSW Group’s steelmaking arm has been examining opportunities to acquire distressed mills in the country. It is open to all options for funding any acquisitions of stressed assets in the sector, an executive said Monday. JSW Steel flagged in August it’s considering partnering with Japan’s JFE Holdings Inc. on deals.
Standard Chartered, India’s largest foreign bank by branch network, has experienced other recent personnel changes in the country. Ananth Narayan, managing director and head of financial markets for South Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, left the lender, a spokesman for the bank confirmed Tuesday in an emailed response to Bloomberg queries.
M.S. Gopikrishnan, head of foreign exchange, rates and credit trading for South Asia, has added head of financial markets for India to his responsibilities, according to the email.
The Standard Chartered spokesman declined to comment on Kulkarni, while a representative for JSW didn’t immediately comment.
India was the third-largest market for Standard Chartered globally at the end of June, according to filings. Bloomberg
Source: Mint