Merrill's Puri resigns as India equity market chief

Sumeet Puri has resigned as head of equity capital markets in India at Merrill Lynch, the biggest arranger of share sales in the nation, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Puri will leave Merrill by August after 13 years with the New York-based investment bank, said the people, requesting anonymity.

They declined to say why Puri was quitting, less than five months after he was named to run equities and origination of structured products in India. Rob Stewart, Merrill's Hong Kong- based spokesman, declined to comment.

Global banks and private equity firms are competing to hire senior bankers in India, where a record economic expansion is spurring companies to raise funds and acquire rivals.

Merrill's top executive in India, Amit Chandra, and its head of investment banking Munesh Khanna quit at the end of last year to start buyout funds.

Merrill is helping sell about $9 billion of Indian shares this month. That includes the nation's biggest initial public offering, by DLF , and ICICI Bank's secondary issue of stock, the largest sale by an Indian company.

ICICI Bank will start selling $4.3 billion of shares in India and overseas tomorrow. The deal follows a $1.7 billion share sale by Sterlite Industries (India) and real estate developer DLF's $2.2 billion IPO last week.

Merrill Lynch is the biggest share sale arranger in India for a third straight year with a 13.9 per cent share, followed by 12.6 per cent for Morgan Stanley and 9 per cent at Kotak Mahindra Capital Co, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.