There are hardly any domestic broking entities that are building up an arsenal at a time when the markets are in the doldrums. So it came as a surprise to many when Ambit Holdings announced the high profile appointment of 51-year old Rahul Gupta as deputy group chief executive officer.
Gupta has worked in almost all the leading Asian economies and should help give insight to the private wealth and institutional equities businesses here. Gupta is also expected to bring international best practices into areas like risk, operations and technology, amongst others.
Gupta’s achievements in the financial services industry are well known. When he moved out of Shinsei Bank, Wall Street Journal, Asia wrote that without the initiative led by him to buyback capital at distressed levels Shinsei Bank could have lost an additional 95 billion yen (over $1 billion) in fiscal years 2008 and 2009.
Interestingly, when Gupta joined the board of Shinsei Bank, he earned the distinction of being the first Indian ever to be appointed to the board of directors of a Japanese bank. At Shinsei, he was handling a balance sheet in excess of $120 billion.
An alumni of Mumbai's Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Gupta has also held senior positions at DBS Bank, Singapore, Deutsche Bank, India, HSBC, India and Societe Generale, India. He is also a senior advisor with the global consulting firm Oliver Wyman and a board member of SICOM, India representing J C Flowers & Co.
Gupta joins Ambit a time when domestic entities have been cutting costs and diversifying into new verticals in an attempt to stay afloat. While Ambit does boast of a notable institutional and private client business, the recent past has shown that the undercurrent has the potential to disturb the biggest of players. Certainly, Gupta will have his plate full.
