ABOUT ELARA
History of Elara
Elara Capital Plc’s epic journey into the global financial markets began with its incorporation in London, United Kingdom in 2002. Today, Elara is authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in UK and registered as a Category A investment bank besides being a full scale service investment bank, having a global foot print and offices across Mumbai, Singapore, New York, Zurich, Mauritius, and continental Europe.
Elara was incorporated when Raj Bhatt was joined by a team of professionals who saw an immense opportunity in one of the fastest growing economies in the world, India. The beginning of Elara’s operations thus coincided with the upturn in the global economy and the recognition of emerging markets like India as a tremendous investment opportunity by the international investor community. While on the one side, global funds were making higher allocations to emerging markets, many Indian companies were looking for funds for their domestic and international growth plans. Elara was one of the first investment banks to recognize this opportunity and being India-centric, it positioned itself as one-stop shop catering to the fund raising requirements of these growth-hungry companies.
Elara started offering capital market products such Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) and Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs) to raise money for listed Indian companies in the overseas markets.
Starting with its 1st successful GDR issue of Sterling Biotech of USD15mn in 2003, Elara emerged as one of the leading investment banks for Indian companies looking at overseas fund raising, and has consistently ranked amongst the top investment banks in the Bloomberg league tables since then. Elara has so far successfully completed over 60 fund raising assignments. Being sector agnostic, Elara has helped raise money for companies from various sectors such as aviation, auto components, construction and infrastructure, hospitality, information technology, logistics, media, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and industrials.
A full service Investment Bank
Starting with fund raising, Elara soon evolved into a full service investment bank. Elara has so far completed transactions worth over USD3.5bn and has expanded the scope of its services to include:
- M&A and Private Equity Advisory Practice:
Strong demand from the existing clients was the key catalyst in setting up this practice. Since its start in early 2007, Elara has successfully closed numerous cross-border and India deals. Broad range of sectors includes Power Equipment, IT Services, Pharma, Entertainment and Financial Services through a highly networked team that operates out of New York, London, Brussels, Singapore and India. - Broking Services:
Elara is a registered trader authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Authority of UK, and is also a member of the London Stock Exchange and a market maker in London AIM market. It also has a very active depository receipts and convertible bonds trading desk and facilitates trading in depository receipts on a matched principal and agency basis. - Asset Management:
Elara Capital Plc. is registered as a Foreign Institutional Investor (FII) in India. It manages several funds including Elara Emerging Markets Fund, domiciled in Luxembourg and Elara India Opportunities Fund Ltd (EIOF), a fund domiciled in Mauritius.
India Operations - Extending Services in the Domestic Financial Market
Elara’s operations being India-centric, it set up two wholly owned subsidiaries in India. This has enabled Elara to step up the service its clients in the domestic market.
Elara Capital (India) Private Limited was incorporated in 2006, as a Category-1 Merchant Bank registered with SEBI. This company offers an entire gamut of financial services including capital raising in the local market through Initial Public Offering (IPOs), rights issue, bonus issue, debt etc, M&A and private equity advisory and financial restructuring advisory services.
Elara Securities (India) Private Limited, the second subsidiary was incorporated in India in 2007. This company was conceived as a specialized research & broking arm focusing on institutional clients to leverage Elara Group’s deep and broad based understanding of the Indian financial markets. With membership of NSE Cash and F&O Segment and BSE Cash Segment, in a short span of time Elara Securities manages several institutional trading accounts.
Elara Securities has a state-of-the-art dealing room in Mumbai with experienced traders and dealers to ensure excellent execution. It has active sales desks manned by experienced salespersons equipped with excellent service capabilities. Elara Securities has access to a large number of Indian companies, which enables it to facilitate Investor–Company interface on a regular basis. Elara has significant distribution and placement capabilities – having active relationships with over 120 institutional investors globally.
Elara has a 20-member strong Global Markets Research team, located in Mumbai which also the crown jewel of the company. Having acquired a vast domain knowledge and a wide-range of expertise in the Indian and global environs, Elara provides an edge to investors with its ahead-of-the-curve ideas and an entirely fresh approach towards large caps. The diverse product repertoire of the research team has already grabbed attention of the investor community in such a short span.
ABOUT ELARA
BUSINESS VISION
Since its founding in 2002, Elara Capital Plc has diligently cherished the dreams of many mid-market Indian entrepreneurs by helping them nurture and value their businesses. Today as I look back, I can proudly say for many of our mid-market but high growth clients, we have offered innovative financing solutions that made a consequential impact on their business lifecycle.
From a small set up, we have grown by leaps and bounds in less than a decade, maintaining a perfect harmony among all stakeholders while retaining our innate ingenuity. The last few, tumultuous years have taught us many things, but there were many champagne moments. As I see it, Elara is fast evolving into an ideal atmosphere that naturally delegates responsibilities, empowerment and growth opportunities.
We have grown seamlessly into a mult-geographical set up, complying with stringent laws in these locales while maintaining our high level of ethical principles. As we take steady and certain strides across the globe, adding investment banking and other strategic services, and a world-class research team in India, we are proud of our progress so far and pledge an unshakable adherence to high level of standards.
As the famous quote goes, people forget how fast you did a job, but they always remember how well you did it. Well, Team Elara meticulously plans and then executes it to perfection. With clients, we strive to do better and better, leading to excellence in form and content.
Welcome to Elara
Raj Bhatt
Vice Chairman and CEO
ABOUT ELARA
Leadership Team
Raj Bhatt - Vice-Chairman & CEO
Raj is the Vice Chairman and CEO of the group. He has 21 years of senior management experience working in complex and multi-cultural organizations in seven different locations spread over three continents. He has an outstanding track record in financial re-engineering, including restructuring, mergers and acquisitions and also in raising equity and debt in international markets. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and also a member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India. He is also a corporate finance representative registered with the FSA.
Phone Number: +4420 7467 5571
E mail: raj.bhatt@elaracapital.com
Ajay Pandey - COO & Head ECM
Ajay is the Chief Operating Officer and head of Emerging Capital Market business. He is also responsible for origination activities in investment banking. He has more than 14 years experience in financial services industry. He joined Elara in 2004. Previously, as an entrepreneur for two years he invested discretionary funds for his clients in emerging markets. Prior to that he was Vice President at Kotak Mahindra (UK) Ltd based in London. He has a Master of Business Administration degree from Faculty of Management Studies, Vadodara and Master of Science from M.S. University, Vadodara.
Phone Number: +4420 7467 5576
E mail: ajay.pandey@elaracapital.com
Amit Arora - Managing Director – Asset Management Business
Amit has over 16 years experience in the financial services industry. He currently heads the Asset Management business for Elara Capital Plc. His previous stints were at Kuvera Fund Ltd, an India dedicated hedge fund seeded by Marshall Wace Ltd and the Kotak Mahindra group where he spent in excess of 12 years across various divisions spanning corporate finance, capital markets and risk management.
Phone Number: +4420 7299 2570
E mail: amit.arora@elaracapital.com
Rakesh Puri – Managing Director – Global Head of Operations & Compliance
Rakesh has over 18 years of post qualification progressive experience in listed and multinational companies in securities market, finance, compliance and legal, corporate secretarial, takeovers and managing IPOs and Institutional placements. Prior to joining Elara as Director in January 2007, he worked with CLSA Group as Head of Compliance and Corporate Counsel. Rakesh has been involved with transaction management of IPOs/Rights/QIP/PE/Open offers of over 3 billion USD, namely TCS, NTPC, Suzlon, Kiri Dyes, Crompton Greaves, Emco, PCIL, Deccan Chronicle, E*Trade and Parabolic Drugs and has worked on numerous cross-border transactions. He has been responsible for setting up Elara in India and also for starting new offices in Singapore, Mauritius and New York. He is commerce graduate, holds a post graduate degree in Law (Professional), is fellow member of ICSI and also qualified CPA from USA . He also holds NSE’s Certification in Financial Markets in Equity, Compliance, Depository and Corporate Governance modules.
Phone Number: +91 22-4062 6872
E mail: rakesh.puri@elaracapital.com
Abhishek Bhagat – Managing Director - Head – Investment Banking
Abhishek A. Bhagat heads the Investment Banking at Elara Capital. Prior to Elara, Abhishek was Head – Transaction Origination for New Age Sectors in YES BANK, covering Technology, Telecom, Pharmaceuticals, Education and Healthcare. He was a member of the Leadership Team at YES BANK since its very inception, and led various initiatives as core member of Corporate Development and Strategy team. Abhishek is ably supported by a team of experienced professionals from a diverse background with tremendous exposure across industries and leading corporates.
You may get in touch with us at the following co-ordinates:
Phone Number: +91-22-4252-6169
E mail: abhishek.bhagat@elaracapital.com
Harendra Kumar - Managing Director - Head – Institutional Equities & Global Research
With over 14-years of experience in the profession and having built several highly successful and profitable sell side businesses (up to 150 people teams), primarily in Institutional & Retail equities, sales, trading, research and distribution, Harendra Kumar spearheads Elara Securities’ institutional equities business in India as well as its cutting edge global research. Prior to joining Elara Securities, he worked with ICICI Securities and Centrum Broking. He is a Commerce Graduate and holds a post graduate degree in law.
Phone Number: +91 99876 88556, +91 22 4062 6871
E mail: harendra.kumar@elaracapital.com
Joseph K. Mammen - Head of Sales and Trading
Joseph is the Head of Sales & Trading at Elara. He coordinates the Sales & Trading activities at the London, New York, Singapore and Mumbai offices. He is responsible for execution of IPO, QIP, GDR and Convertible Bond new issues as well as day to day trading activities. Joseph has over 8 years experience in investment banking, he has previously worked with Aberdeen Asset Management and GE Capital. Joseph holds a first degree in Economics from Madras Christian College and a Masters degree from Manchester Business School, U.K. He's been with Elara since 2005.
Phone Number: +4420 7467 5578
E mail: joseph.mammen@elaracapital.com
Karuna Luthar
Karuna Luthar is a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India with over 12 years of experience in the financial services industry, working with HSBC in the UAE. Prior to that, she worked for six years as a management consultant with premier firms in the UAE and in India, specialising in business valuation and financial feasibility assignments
David Somekh - President, USA
David heads our US operations. He has previously worked in Elara's London office where he focused on the development of the capital markets division. His broad experience has given him exposure to a range of areas including sales/trading, proprietary futures trading, speculative energy trading and management accounting. He has a theoretical physics degree from University College London.
Phone Number: 646-808-9217
E mail: david.somekh@elaracapital.com
Kranti Sety - Head - Human Resources
Kranti Sety brings with her close to 10 years of experience in Human Resources, working with companies like The ConJoin Group, Randox Laboratories & GTL Ltd. Her areas of expertise are HR Setups, Policy designing, Performance Management etc. She holds a Bachelors Degree in Arts (Economics) and Masters Degree in Human Resources Management from Welingkar’s Institute of Management.
Phone Number: +91 22-4062 6890
E mail: kranti.sety@elaracapital.com
Mahesh Iyer – Chief Technology Officer
Mahesh has over 16 years experience in the IT industry working for various organizations in India and UK. He has an Electronics Degree from Mumbai University and has extensive experience in the application of technology for the financial services sector. He has managed multiple technology teams in the design, development and implementation of technology solutions for various domains like finance, manufacturing, outsourcing and product development.
Phone Number: +4420 7467 5577
E mail: mahesh.iyer@elaracapital.com
Vikas Chauhan - Asset Management Division
Vikas has over 10 years experience in Indian equities. He joined Elara in 2006 in the Capital Markets Team and was responsible for raising capital for various mid-cap Indian corporate via GDRs / CBs & Aim Listings. In 2008, he moved to Asset Management division and currently manages ‘Elara Absolute Return Fund’ and client portfolios on discretionary basis. Prior to joining Elara, he was working in ONIC Holding (an FII) and ASK-Raymond James (a Brokerage in India) as an Investment Analyst. He is an MBA from Manchester Business School (UK), a Cost Accountant from The Institute of Costs & Works Accountant (India) and a Bachelor in commerce from the University of Mumbai (India).
Phone Number: +4420 7467 5570
E mail: vikas.chauhan@elaracapital.com
Vinod Tailor – Managing Director, Singapore
Vinod has over 30 years of experience in financial sector ranging from retail, international and corporate investment and private banking. He joined Elara in April 2009 and he works as a Director of Global Business Development division. He is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and a fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment.
Phone Number: +65 6536 6068
E mail: vinod.tailor@elaracapital.com
ABOUT ELARA
Corporate Governance
As a registered intermediary in financial markets, Elara Group is expected to follow highest standards of corporate governance. Elara Group has a dedicated compliance group for ensuring regulatory compliance across all its businesses and operations. The key functions of this group include identification and assessment and compliance related matters, review of new products and processes from a regulatory compliance perspective and ongoing monitoring and reporting. Elara Group has put in place a anti-money laundering policy approved by the Board of Directors and Know Your Customer and transaction monitoring procedures as per Guidelines of Financial Market Regulators. Elara Group reviews these policies and procedures from time to time.
Avinash Persaud - Non Executive Chairman
Avinash Persaud's illustrious career spans finance, academic and public policy. A renowned authority in currency, he is also the Chairman of Intelligence Capital Limited and Paradise Beach Limited. He headed State Street Bank & Trust as its managing director and was global head for currency and commodity research at J. P. Morgan. He is emeritus Professor, Gresham College, Senior Fellow, London Business School, Visiting Fellow, CFAP, Cambridge University, Governor, London School of Economics, Member of Council, Royal Economics Society; and President of the Economics Section, British Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a winner of the Jacques de Larosiere Award in Global Finance from IIF, Washington. On financial policies, he was the Chairman, Warwick Commission, Member, Pew Congressional Task Force, US, Member, UN Commission of Experts and Member, International Task Force on Financial Transaction Taxes. He is a former Visiting Scholar of the IMF and ECB and Member of the UK Treasury's Audit & Risk Committee.
Mark Runacres - Independent Director
Mark holds a range of positions in diverse companies in addition to Elara: a Non Executive Director of MindTree Consulting, G4S Security Management Services ( India ) Ltd and Invicta Renewables Pvt Ltd. He is an executive director at D1 Oils India Pvt Ltd, Spring Sport and Sustainability and VERpool Ltd. His other appointments include as a Senior Visiting Fellow at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi and as a Board Member of the Business and the Community Foundation, a leading Corporate Social Responsibility agency in Delhi. During his twenty five year career as a British diplomat Mark spent over a decade working on Indian affairs, with eight of those years resident in Delhi , most recently as Minister and Deputy British High Commissioner until June 2006. Mark had served previously in the British Mission to the United Nations in New York and the British Embassy in Paris.
Saurabh Srivastava - Independent Director
Saurabh Srivastava is one of India's leading IT entrepreneurs, angel investors and venture capitalists. He has worked extensively in the US, UK, India and Singapore and has held senior executive positions with leading international companies such as IBM and Unisys before becoming an entrepreneur and then a VC
Srivastava is one of India's most respected IT industry leaders and is recognized as one of the architects of the Indian software industry. He cofounded, chaired and is now Chairman Emeritus of NASSCOM. He was Chairman of the Indian government's Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council for 4 years. He has chaired the IT Committee of FICCI and has been on the National Committee of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII).
T.N.SHANKAR - Executive Director
Shankar has twenty two years of experience, of which the last ten has been as head of manufacturing businesses in India and in South Africa. Key career achievements were, concluding a Joint venture with an Austrian company; setting up a green field project in India; Managing acquisition of an Engineering company in South Africa. Prior work includes Management consultancy for a premier consulting company and in corporate planning for a large conglomerate in India. Shankar is a Mechanical Engineer from IIT, Chennai and an MBA from IIM Bangalore.
Achal Garg - Compliance officer, Mauritius
Chartered Accountant; having 3 years of diversified experience in the field of Accounts, Audit, and Taxation & Financing. He joined Elara in 2009 and presently heading the Elara operations in Mauritius for their rapidly growing Elara India Opportunities Fund. Prior joining Elara he was working with Frankfinn Aviation Services.
Dominick Del Duca - Compliance officer, USA
Dominick has 31 years of experience in Banking and Financial Services, including 4 years as a regulator with the American Stock Exchange. He has held positions ranging from examiner to President of various companies. He joined Elara's New York office in April 2010 as FINOP and Chief Compliance Officer.
Rashmi Deshpande - Compliance officer, India
Rashmi is the Company Secretary at Elara Capital (India) Private Limited and Compliance Officer for both Elara Capital (India) Private Limited and Elara Securities (India) Private Limited. She is Commerce graduate, Associate Member of Institute of Company Secretaries of India and holds a Bachelor's degree in law. She has experience in dealing with the Securities and Exchange Board of India Limited, Reserve Bank of India, Bombay Stock Exchange Limited, National Stock Exchange of India Limited and Ministry of Corporate Affairs. She is having experience in the field of secretarial, legal, compliance and corporate governance for last 15 years.
ABOUT ELARA
Diversity
At Elara, we leverage the diversity of our people to meet business challenges, with markets that are active 24 hours a day and new financial problems that demand new solutions. We believe the diversity of our people is essential to our problem-solving, creativity and our ability to get on with our clients as well as a source of business opportunity.
We pride ourselves on a culture of team work. For our employees to excel, everyone must feel that they are working in an environment that welcomes and supports differences, and that encourages input from all perspectives.
Our people have the right to expect a workplace in which the richness of their lives and experience is welcomed and valued by their team and by the firm.
Media & Press Releases
Godrej's Acquisition of Issue Group
We are pleased to announce that Elara Capital acted as the financial advisor to Godrej Consumer Products Limited (hereinafter referred to as “GCPL”) on its acquisition of...
Prakash Industries Ltd (PKI) receives impressive response to its USD50 million FCCB issue
The global appetite for the Indian paper seems to be steadily growing even amid fresh signs of an economic strain across Europe and the United States....