Early this month, KKR hired Dhiren Mehta, a Citi Group veteran as director of its India franchise. Mehta joined KKR from Nomura where he served as Executive Director, Head of Fixed Income Institutional Sales for India. In his new role, Mehta will work with BV Krishnan, director and head of KKR's Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC).
Mehta started his career at Citigroup, where he worked for over 17 years across both the equity and fixed income domains. Mehta, who played a key role in building Citigroup's fixed income sales platform in India, also served as the head of Citigroup's credit trading business.
Dhiren's experience as a fixed income sales professional and his balance sheet management expertise is expected to benefit KKR's efforts to become a financial major in India, which will add to its expertise in private equity business. According to Sanjay Nayar, Dhiren will be a terrific addition to further help KKR strengthen its platform capabilities in India.
KKR had done a few large PE deals in India while debt transactions were done through NBFC arm-KKR India Financial Services Private Limited. KKR made various debt investments in Sajjan Jindal Group, Max India and Avantha Power.
At a time when major private equity players expand businesses into NBFC and mezzanine financing, Mehta’s presence is sure to strengthen KKR’s future expansion.