JPMorgan has hired Chintan Maniar from ICICI Bank, Hardik Doshi from Lehman Brothers, Sonia Gandhi from Metanoia Consulting, Karina Goswami from Enam, Jitendra Raval from Merrill Lynch and Vinita Muriani from Hutchison Whampoa's telecoms group. All the new hires will be based in Mumbai.
Currently, JPMorgan has nine sales, sales trading and dealing staff positioned in Mumbai. With the six new hires this will expand to 15. The current equity research team numbers 16 although plans are underway to grow this by 40%.
In India the sales, sales trading and dealing teams report to Sameer Lumba and regionally they report to Randolf Clinton. Research reports locally to Bharat Iyer and regionally to Sunil Garg.
ôWe will not run a proprietary business but will be an active æfacilitator of client businessÆ", says Nick Andrews, head of Asia-Pacific and emerging market equities, commenting on the bankÆs strategy for this area.
JPMorgan also announced that it will consolidate its specialist global sales for Indian cash equities in Mumbai, signaling its continued commitment to the country. The step is intended to assist clients seeking to strengthen connections with the Indian market through direct access. The team will continue to be supported by the cash and derivatives product experts in offshore locations.
Indian equities markets are at an all-time high leading some to questions whether this is an opportune time for such a move. ôThis is not a short-term investment for JPMorgan,ö explains Andrews. ôWe intend to increase our onshore presence across products because the long-term potential in huge in India and to be effective in emerging markets in general - not just India - you must have a meaningful presence onshore. This is why, for example, we were the first to build out onshore in Pakistan.ö
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