IIFL Securities hires top Private Bankers to transform its Wealth Business

Leading financial services house IIFL Securities today announced three senior management appointments to bolster its Wealth management platform / equities broking business. IIFL Securities currently manages $23billion worth of AUM (appx INR 1.9 lac crores). It has appointed career Private Bankers Mr. Raghav Gupta and Mr. Prakash Bulusu as Joint CEOs to manage and grow their HNI & UHNI wealth business and Mr. Amit Srivastava as Senior Managing Partner to run Investments & Product for the firm.

Mr. Raghav Gupta and Mr. Prakash Bulusu were previously Senior Managing Partners at ASK Asset and Wealth Management (majority owned by Blackstone, world’s largest Private Equity Fund), managing North, South, East businesses in India and offshore markets. Mr Amit Srivastava was helming the managed equity product platform, asset allocation and portfolio analytics desk. He was also involved in managing investments for key UHNI client relationships pan-India.

These three have helped build the Wealth practice for ASK Asset & Wealth Management and have been instrumental in taking it to great heights in eight years. The business grew 6x in 8 years with more than 50% contribution to the overall firm. They had joined ASK with significant equity ownership and it was later followed by investment from global Private Equity players like Advent and Blackstone into ASK. All three have worked in the financial services industry for over 25 years and have been together in the Wealth Management space for two decades (across Citi and ASK). 

Commenting on their appointment in a joint statement, Raghav, Prakash & Amit said, “We are thrilled to join hands at IIFL Securities with the pioneers of the Indian financial services industry, Mr. Nirmal Jain and Mr. R Venkataraman. We are also excited to be a part of the transformational journey and leverage the Institutional Equities expertise of Mr. Nemkumar, Managing Director of the firm.

“Our endeavour will be to grow and build brand ‘IIFL Securities’ into India’s leading Wealth, Asset Management and Equities franchise. The strong Investment Banking and research-focussed Institutional Equities platform of IIFL Securities led by Mr Nemkumar coupled with our prior experience provides us a great opportunity to utilise the synergy in creating a client-centric platform and bringing holistic wealth management experience to clients.”

Commenting on the appointment, Mr R Venkataraman, Co-Promoter, IIFL Group and Chairman, IIFL Securities said, “I welcome Raghav, Prakash, and Amit to the IIFL family. With the joining of these three veteran and accomplished Private Bankers, the mandate is now to transform IIFL Securities and take it to the next level.” 

Wealth and asset management industry in India has been evolving rapidly. As more and more promoters, entrepreneurs and CXOs generate wealth, there is a dearth of quality talent required to advise clients and help them manage their investments. Not surprising, therefore, that the growth prospects of the industry has seen a lot of interest from top global Private Equity players like Blackstone, KKR, Bain, General Atlantic, PAG etc.  

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