Religare Capital Markets has hired banking veteran Jason Barakat-Brown as head of advisory based in Singapore. He started the job on January 21 and is responsible for leading the firm’s corporate finance team, including mergers and acquisitions, origination and execution.
“[He] will build out a focused advisory and corporate finance execution business to support Religare’s equity capital markets distribution. As we grow, we are increasingly seeing our clients request advisory services,” said a spokesperson.
Barakat-Brown has eight professional staff in his team, and he reports to Sutha Kandiah, head of investment banking at Religare Markets.
He joins Religare from Candor Advisory Partners, a firm he founded in 2012 after 16 years in various corporate finance positions at international investment banks. He spent nine years as an M&A banker in Asia and his experience spans several countries, including China, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Australia.
“Religare and [Barakat-Brown] saw the strategic opportunity for them to come together in an environment where M&A activity is increasingly active,” said the spokesperson.
Until 2011, Barakat-Brown was joint head of corporate finance and M&A for Southeast Asia at UBS. Prior to joining UBS in 2001, he was with Jardine Fleming Ord Minnett and Schroders.
Religare Capital Markets is part of India’s Religare Enterprises group and is an Asia-focused emerging markets investment bank active in equity capital markets, corporate finance and private financing. It has offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Dubai.
Religare Enterprises is one of India’s leading diversified financial services groups. Its services cover asset management, life and health insurance, lending, broking, investment banking and wealth management. The company is headquartered in New Delhi and is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange in India.
