Barclays Technology I-Banking head Praveer Garg set to join Jefferies

Jefferies has been aggressively hiring I-bankers over the past year and a half

Praveer Garg, Director and Head of Technology Investment Banking at Barclays Bank India has resigned and is set to join the Indian arm of rival investment bank Jefferies, multiple industry sources with knowledge of the matter told Moneycontrol.

" Garg has quit and is serving his gardening leave. He is headed to Jefferies and is likely to join the firm by July "said one of the persons above.

Two other persons confirmed the proposed move.

"The plan is for Garg to come on board as a Senior Vice President and look at tech services, internet and software. Tech is a lucrative segment and Jefferies is keen to build a presence in it," one of them elaborated.

All the three persons above spoke to Moneycontrol on the condition of anonymity.

When contacted, Barclays declined to comment. Jefferies and Garg were unavailable for an immediate response. This article will be updated as soon as we hear from the parties.

According to his Linkedin profile, Garg, an alumnus of IIT Delhi and The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, has cross-border I-banking experience in Indian public and private markets across equity fund raising, M&A, financing and sales and structuring. He joined Barclays Capital as an analyst trainee in 2008 and has headed the Technology Investment Banking Coverage at the firm since February 2022.

Barclays has been involved in several marquee tech deals in the past few years including the $3bn sale of Hexaware to Carlyle by Baring PE Asia, the sale of BPO firm IGT Solutions to Baring PE Asia for around $800 mn and the $1.2 bn sale of the Hinduja Group's healthcare business process management arm HGS to Baring PE Asia.

Jefferies Betting Big On India

Jefferies has been aggressively hiring I-bankers over the past year and a half as the firm looks to strengthen its dealmaking vertical in India.

On April 6, 2023, Moneycontrol had reported that Ashish Jhaveri, Head of M&A at Barclays Bank India was likely to join Jefferies as its new head of I-banking ( India).

On Jan 28, 2022, Moneycontrol was the first to report that Jibi Jacob, Managing Director and Head, Capital Markets (Investment Banking) at Edelweiss Financial Services had resigned and was headed to Jefferies as MD and Head (Capital Markets), India and South Asia.

On March 24, The Economic Times reported that Jayesh Visaria, the head of healthcare and consumer I-banking at Barclays had quit the firm after a stint of 8 years. Along with an entrepreneurial role, Visaria would work as an independent advisor to family offices and private equity funds, the report added.

Christopher Wood, Ashish Agarwal and Mahesh Nandurkar are amongst the senior executives of CLSA looking at equity strategy and research who had moved on earlier to join Jefferies.

There have been other moves in the investment banking fraternity earlier this year. On March 1, Moneycontrol reported that Pratik Loonker of Investec was headed to ICICI Securities. Earlier in January, Mahesh Natarajan, the ex-ECM head of ICICI Securities was tapped by foreign investment bank Nomura.

Also Read: Rahul Jain to lead India office of Boston Consulting Group

Note For Readers: Corporate Crossings is a series from Moneycontrol that will focus the lens on important executive movements within companies and in the industry, and capture the exits and new innings of members of India Inc., investment bankers, lawyers, Big 4 professionals, private equity investors, & more.