Career Summary
Standard Chartered Bank
July 2010 – Present
Amongst the 5% High Performing employees globally (part of the SCB HiPo programme), identified for specialist skills enhancement workshops for leadership positions
Associate Director, Corporate Finance Credit Insurance, London
Apr 2014 – Present
• Managing and mentoring a team of 3; responsible for placing credit and political risk insurance on structured and vanilla lending deals across Project Finance, Structured Trade Finance, Leveraged Finance and Shipping & Aviation Finance globally
• Successfully led closing of 33 deals – more than USD 1.2bn of cover, which reduced Risk Weighted Assets (RWA) and increased returns on RWA almost threefold; successfully ahead of targets since September 2012
• Strengthened relationships with the insurance market through frequent meetings and calls with senior management and CXOs; influential in establishing 5 new relationships over the period, which helped in expanding market for the more challenging deals
• Planned and organised a seminar in SCB India, which was attended by underwriters from London, Singapore and Mumbai and SCB regional heads; underwriters are more open to Indian deals since then – indicated on 3 deals in 2 months (versus 3 deals in 3 years)
• Worked with deal teams to structure 2 acquisition finance deals in Africa and distributed risks to insurers; significant achievement given underwriters’ aversion to acquisition deals; made possible through in-depth explanation of risks and mitigants and effective structuring
• Convinced insurers that premium rate on swaps should be a function of both credit profile of the swap counterparty and volatility, instead of only the former, which is the current standard; successfully opened up 5 insurers to consider 2 deals on this basis
• Opened up a new business segment (~USD 1bn) for insurance – SCB’s investments in NCDs; this required a deep dive into Indian regulations on investments involving offshore entities and creative structuring of insurance policies
Associate, Corporate Finance Credit Insurance,
London Sep 2012 – Mar 2014
• Instrumental in setting up of a global insurance desk from scratch; collaborated with internal teams (Risk, Legal, Finance, Payments, Collateral) to set up and improve (on continual basis) processes for smooth working of desk
• Established relationships with 25 insurers, assisted in their on-boarding as SCB clients including analysing their credit and financial standings; proposed a more logical methodology for counterparty limits than existing one, convinced senior decision-makers about its merits
• Actively engaged with deal teams in different geographies to explain advantages of using insurance; involved in discussions with senior management to develop a strategy for the desk and set targets
• Helped in creating a useful capital management and distribution tool for the bank, placed more than USD 1bn of insurance cover across 39 deals
• Promoted in April 2014 – one of the 5 out of ~160 strong IG 2012 batch to be promoted
International Graduate (IG), Mumbai
July 2010 – Aug 2012
2-years’ rotational leadership programme for ~160 graduates globally, to give holistic view of banking, aided by 1-month trainings in Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur provided by external industry experts
Project Finance
Jul 2011 – Aug 2012
• Finalised the base case financial model, assisted in structuring deal terms and having suitable financial covenants for a USD 100m Term Loan for a Build Operate Transfer (BOT) road concession – 244 km stretch on a national highway
• Reviewed the technical due diligence and prepared internal credit appraisal pack including financial and credit analysis of project, borrower and sponsors for a USD 700m Term Loan for a 1980 MW supercritical domestic coal fired thermal power plant
• Presented sales pitch to an Indian client on why External Commercial Borrowing with a Cross Currency Swap will be better for him than an INR loan, which was crucial in winning mandate for a USD 50m Term Loan for a renewable power project
Credit Sales, Financial Markets
Feb 2011 – June 2011
• Prepared syndications packs (Information Memorandum, Bank presentations) and pitched deals to Indian PSU banks, which led to sell down of ~70% of INR 6,720m Housing Real Estate project and INR 5,500m Business Centre development project Term Loans
• Led a team of 5 to organise Financial Market (FM) India’s annual client event in Mumbai, where more than 100 clients from all over India were invited for a 2-day
Group Strategy
July 2010 – Jan 2011
• Identified key geographic corridors and sectors with potential to increase market share in trade flows from 3.8%(2009) to 5.2%(2012) (potential revenue growth – USD 50m), through cross-selling; dedicated personnel assigned to implement recommendations
• Worked on the revamp of SCILL, SCB’s NBFC in India; presented to the Management Committee ways to position the ‘new’ SCILL within India’s regulatory and competitive context and proposed a new capital structure (including equity support needed from SCB)
Nokia India
Apr 2009 – June 2009
Intern, Gurgaon
• Estimated market size for INR 4-6k mobile handset segment using time series forecasting; surveyed consumers and interpreted survey data; recommended designs, features and themes for future handsets based on market size and survey results
• Indentified best practises followed in the industry and formulated promotion strategy to boost sales
Qualifications & Education
Years/ Examination/ Institution GPA/% Rank/Achievements
2011 CFA Level 1 CFA >70% Cleared by only 39% of applicants
2008-10 Full-time MBA (Finance) IIM Lucknow (IIML) 7.8/10 99.88 percentile in CAT 2007
2009 International Exchange ESCP Europe, Paris – Top 6 selected from 330
2004-08 B. Tech. (Electronics) VJTI Mumbai 8.0/10 Top 10% of the class
2003-04 Std XII (H.S.C.) Fergusson College, Pune 93% State Merit Certificate
2001-02 Std. X (S.S.C.) K. Bajaj School, Pune 91% Rank 1 amongst 120
ACADEMIC PROJECTS
Course of Independent Study Restructuring of Banks post the Subprime Crisis – analysed inefficiencies of risk management practices; suggested ways for creating long term stability and value Dec-09
Financial Strategy Examined Contingent Value Rights in takeovers; analyzed GM’s acquisition of Pillsbury Oct-09
Equity Research Fundamental & Technical Analysis of Lupin; predicted 50% upside, achieved in 4 months Sep-09
Macroeconomics Developed alternative to the Human Development Index model to rank nations Sep-08
SCHOLASTIC ACHIEVEMENTS
• IIM Lucknow Merit Scholarship for securing Rank 1 (GPA – 9.1/10) in class in Term 1 2008
• Maharashtra State Certificate for securing 100% marks in Maths and Physics 2002, 2004
• Maharashtra State Talent Search Scholarship – Rank 14 out of over 200k candidates 2001
Extracurricular Activities & Achievements
Co curricular
• Certified in Derivatives Market Module of the Indian National Stock Exchange (90.3% marks) 2008
• Winner, INDEX ’08, India’s biggest B-school Live Market Research and Strategy Contest 2008-09
Quizzing
• Finalist in a national level quiz competition amongst over 50 participating teams 2006
Sports
• Winner, Maharashtra State Badminton Championship 2002
Positions of Responsibility
• Coordinator, IIML Consulting & Strategy Club – Pioneered ‘Consultant of the Year’, the Club’s flagship event and instrumental in bagging 4 live projects from local companies 2008-10
• Head Prefect, K. Bajaj School – Led a group of 180 to first position in sports and academic events; instrumental in establishing a 360 degrees feedback system for teachers 2001-02
