33 executives of ICICI Securities quit to join another financial services firm
About 33 top line executives from ICICI Securities Private Wealth Management left and joined WGC Wealth, an arm of financial services group Wadhawan Global Capital, making one of the largest mass exits in the wealth management space in India.
Maneesh Kapoor, former Senior Regional Head at ICICI Securities Private Wealth has been hired as the Executive Director for the north and east markets, while the south market will be led by Sailesh Balachandran, former South Regional Head at ICICI Securities Private Wealth as the Executive Director.
Further, about 26 executives who joined from ICICI Securities Private Wealth are front-end relationship managers.
WGC, which owns 38 percent in Dewan Housing Finance, entered the wealth management space in August when it hired Atul Singh, former CEO of Julius Baer Wealth Advisors India as its CEO. It had also appointed senior executives from Julius Baer, IDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank to form a 70-member team in India. Now, to further expand the business in India, WGC would be looking to add more members to the team.
"We have a strong team with many high-quality senior investment professionals on board. We plan to expand the team to 150 people by the end of this financial year," said Atul, CEO, WGC Wealth.
Prior to WGC Wealth, Atul Singh has worked with Julius Baer where he had set up the wealth management business for India. He was also associated with Booz Allen Hamilton and Merrill Lynch.
Wealth managers in India are addressing a market at $1.5 Tn of investible wealth, which is expected to cross $3 Tn of personal investible wealth by 2022. As the wealth management market has seen more action, senior-level exits are quite common in India these days.
"For new entrants as well as established players, team movement is an efficient and quick way to build the business," said Anshul Lodha, Director at Michael Page India.