Nomura hires Nipun Goel and Nitin Jain in India

Nomura has appointed Nipun Goel to head investment banking and Nitin Jain to co-head fixed income for its India operations.

Nomura India received a merchant banking licence in December 2008. In February 2009 it announced it was launching sales and trading and investment banking operations in the country. However, in a downsizing in April that same year, which took place across Asia but hit India hard, Nomura let go of nine people in its then 26-strong India investment banking team, including some of its most senior staff. In synch with other investment banks, it has since been rebuilding, both in India and across Asia.

Goel joins from Merrill Lynch India, where he spent 14 years, most recently as a managing director in the investment banking division. His experience spans equity and debt capital markets, corporate finance, client coverage and origination across sectors.

Jain will co-head fixed income alongside Neeraj Gambhir, who is currently head of Nomura's credit business in India. Gambhir joined Nomura in October 2008 from Lehman Brothers and before that worked at ICICI Bank.

Jain too has a background at ICICI, having spent 14 years with various ICICI entities. When he resigned in 2008 he was managing director and chief executive officer of ICICI Securities Primary Dealership (I-Sec PD), the ICICI group company licensed to trade Indian government securities. He was replaced as MD and CEO by Balachander Prasanna.

Nomura received a licence to trade and underwrite government securities in India in September last year. Jain's arrival is widely expected to kick-start this business, especially given his extensive experience in this area at I-Sec PD.

When Jain left I-Sec PD in 2008 it was widely rumoured that he would be doing something entrepreneurial in which he would have an equity ownership. Instead, he has now resurfaced, two years later, as co-head of Nomura's fixed-income business in India. The announcement that India will have co-heads of fixed income comes in the same week as Nomura announced that Jai Rajpal has been appointed sole head of fixed income for Asia ex-Japan following the resignation of co-head Thomas Siegmund.