JPMorgan India has lost Sameer Lumba, head of distribution, and Rohit Shah, head of sales and trading. With them Lumba and Shah are taking Rajeev Gala, Manish Dabir and Rohinee Karmakar also from the sales and trading part of the business. The five are part of a 35-strong team at the US investment bank.
"These new hires along with the joint venture with ASK will further strengthen the foreign institutional investor capabilities of the JM group and complete the suite of services in JM Financial's capital market business," says JM Financial spokesperson Nandini Goswami.
In the split with its former joint venture partner Morgan Stanley, JM Financial had relinquished institutional broking, equity sales, trading and research for $425 million. In July, JM Financial announced it would buy 60% ownership in domestic firm ASK Securities for $14.4 million to kick-start this business. ASK group had dissolved its own joint venture with Raymond James earlier this year.
Commenting on the departures, Randolf Clinton, head of cash equities for Asia ex-Japan at JPMorgan, says: "We have greatly expanded during the past few months and made significant progress in growing the business. India remains a priority for JPMorgan in achieving overall regional expansion and we are actively looking for new talent. We hope to announce new appointments in the near future."
The JM Financial move follows a May announcement by India Infoline that it will bring on board four senior bankers from CLSA to start its own institutional business. The ability to create a business is appealing to young Indian professionals with an entrepreneurial streak. Across businesses, Indians are now attracted to opportunities to have an ownership stake in a business they create.
Sources close to the development also comment that the tide has turned in the investment banking industry in India. Local firms are now willing to pay high salaries to attract top-notch talent. In many cases, these salaries are directly linked to the revenues that executives bring in.
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