Citi's equity capital market deals spearhead Arvind Vashistha quits; may join rival JPM

The search for Vashistha's replacement at Citi has begun, a source aware of the development said

Arvind Vashistha, the head of equity capital markets at Citi's India investment banking unit, has stepped down after a stint of nearly 10 years and is likely to join rival investment bank JP Morgan in a senior role, multiple industry sources told Moneycontrol.

"Vashistha has resigned and may be headed to JP Morgan over the course of the next few months and take up a senior position there," one of the persons cited above said.

A second person also confirmed his exit. The exact proposed role or designation for Vashistha at JP Morgan was not immediately clear.

According to a third person aware of the move, the search for Vashistha's replacement at Citi has begun.

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

When contacted, Citi declined to comment on the specific development but said, "India is one of Citi's key markets globally where we will continue to invest to support clients."

JP Morgan declined to comment. Vashistha was unavailable for comment despite repeated attempts to contact him.

Kaustubh Kulkarni is the Senior Country Officer, India and Vice Chairman, Asia Pacific at JP Morgan. The firm appointed Navin Wadhwani as the India investment banking chief in October 2022 , after he moved from Reliance Industries, where he had headed the mergers & acquisitions arm for 10 years. Currently, Abhinav Bharti is the head, equity capital markets, investment banking.

Vashistha, a chartered accountant, joined Citi as head of equity capital markets in November 2014. He joined from UBS, where he had worked as an executive director, global capital markets, since 2006.

The domestic i-banking industry has witnessed a lot of top-level churn in the past few months amid a frenzy of capital market deals across sectors, especially in the block deals and IPO segment.

In December, JM Financial announced the appointment of Axis Capital's Chirag Negandhi as MD in a role which would see him overseeing various businesses of the group, including institutional equities, equity capital markets, private wealth, alternate investments, portfolio management services and real estate advisory. Negandhi was earlier the Joint MD and co-CEO at Axis Capital. Salil Pitale, the other co-CEO also stepped down, according to reports.

On January 20, Moneycontrol broke the news of veteran dealmaker Atul Mehra exiting top domestic investment bank JM Financial after a tenure of more than 32 years. He is likely to join rival Axis Capital as the new MD & CEO, the report added.