ICICI Venture hires Prashant Purker and Parth Gandhi

Indian financial sponsor ICICI Venture has appointed Prashant Purker and Parth Gandhi as presidents in its private equity team, taking the total number of presidents to five. This is the first significant appointment since Vishakha Mulye became managing director of the private equity fund following Renuka Ramnath's departure in April.

Purker was earlier a managing director with Nomura India. He was retrenched in April as part of a restructuring that saw the firm significantly downsize its India operations with three MDs, two vice-presidents and four associates let go.

Purker's move to ICICI Venture sees him return to the ICICI group after two years. Purker joined Lehman Brothers in May 2007 from ICICI Bank where he was head of global principal investments and trading. At Lehman he headed global finance for India, also overseeing the client-based risk solutions group, covering both debt and equities. Over his two-decade career in banking, Purker has also worked with BNP Paribas, Peregrine and Citi in India.

Gandhi was earlier at Navigator Capital Advisors, an advisory firm which focuses on mid-market transactions, where he worked with both founders and managers of companies, as well as private equity and hedge funds. Before that he was a senior manager in the strategy and transformation practice of Cap Gemini Ernst and Young.

ICICI Venture now has five senior staff members in private equity investing with the designation president. In addition to Purker and Gandhi these are: ICICI group veterans Jayanta Banerjee and Sumit Chandwani, and KS Jangbahadur, a former investment banker who the firm hired in 2008 from J.P. Morgan in the US.

The new hires seem to be part of a plan by ICICI Venture's MD and chief executive officer, Vishakha Mulye to build up the team. Mulye took charge at ICICI Venture in April when Renuka Ramnath resigned. Mulye too is an ICICI group veteran, having joined the group in 1993. She came to ICICI Venture from ICICI Bank's general insurance subsidiary, ICICI Lombard General Insurance, where she was a director.

Ramnath had been heading ICICI Venture since 2001 and is considered one of the most experienced private equity professionals in India. Sudhir Variyar, who was a senior director in ICICI Venture's private equity team, left with Ramnath. Media has reported that the pair has launched a private equity fund, which will invest across industry sectors. The fund is currently raising funds and has already received some commitments from Indian domestic financial institutions.