India Infoline hires co-heads for Asset Mgmt

Mumbai, Sep 18: India Infoline announced the hiring of Deepesh Pandey, erstwhile Deputy CIO of Mirae Asset, Singapore and Manish Srivastava, ex-Fund Manager of Halbis (HSBC Global Asset Management), Singapore, as co-heads of the Investment team for its Asset Management business, IIFL Capital.

With offices in Singapore, Dubai and New York, IIFL Capital aims to offer India-focused equity products and fund management and advisory services for offshore customers as well as domestic wealth management customers. Going ahead, after achieving critical mass in India-focused products, IIFL Capital also aims to offer products for other Asian markets.

India Infoline Ltd today also announced that it has received SEBI approval for the India Infoline sponsored 'India Infoline Ventures Capital Fund (IIVCF).

India Infoline will act as the Investment Manager to the fund, which will provide seed capital to entrepreneurs and businesses with innovative and scalable business ideas across a variety of sectors.

Deepesh Pandey has over 13 years' experience in managing India equity funds. While he has worked with Prudential ICICI, Franklin Templeton and SBI Funds Management as Fund Manager, in his previous assignment, he was with Mirae Asset, Singapore as the Deputy CIO. He holds a B. Tech (Mech) from IIT- Delhi, and a PGDM from IIM- Calcutta.

Manish Srivastava has over 13 years' experience in the Indian equity markets. He has worked with leading stock-broking and asset management companies ABN Amro, Citigroup, CLSA and SSKI covering various sectors. In his previous assignment, he was with Halbis (HSBC Global Asset Management) as a part of three-member team managing India equity funds and a hedge fund. He holds a B.Tech in Mining Engg from IT, BHU and a PGDM from IIM, Ahmedabad. He is also a CFA charter holder.

Speaking on the occasion, Nirmal Jain, Chairman, India Infoline said, "In line with our strategy of building new businesses with leadership by people who are not only well experienced but have an unparalleled track record, we are very pleased to announce that Pandey and Srivastava have become part of our team for the asset management business. Given their track record, I am sure they will be able to build a team with a track record, which is just as exemplary."

"We will focus on the developed markets' investor base of pension funds, endowment funds, Mutual Funds, HNIs, sovereign funds for India equity exposure in asset allocations. We will leverage on the IIFL Wealth offices in US, Middle East, Singapore and India and prime brokers," said Deepesh Pandey, co-Head, Investments, IIFL Capital.

'Going ahead we will setup our own marketing teams. On the domestic front, we will reach out to HNIs via the sales and marketing team of IIFL Wealth, India Infoline's wealth management subsidiary," Deepesh added.

"The idea is to offer structured equity products with absolute-return focus using derivatives to enhance and hedge returns besides Long-only funds with a superior value proposition," said Manish Srivastava, co-Head, Investments, IIFL Capital.

"We are gearing up to launch two long-short funds for offshore customers by 4Q2008. We are also aiming to launch a similar product for domestic customers and more customized funds to benefit from current market situation. In the medium term, the idea is to add various equity funds to complete the product range, including a midcap-focused fund and other sector-specific funds," Manish added.

ANI