Corporate Crossings: EYs Chirag Agrawal headed to Deloitte as new head of corporate finance

Chirag Agrawal (Image - LinkedIn)

Chirag Agrawal, Partner (Investment Banking) at Big 4 firm EY India, has resigned and will soon join rival Deloitte India as the latter's new head of corporate finance, multiple industry sources in the know told Moneycontrol.

"Yes, Agrawal has moved on and is expected to join Deloitte next week. Romal Shetty, the South Asia CEO has aggressive hiring plans and wants to bolster the deals and M&A vertical," said one of the persons cited above.

Deloitte Partner Sumit Khanna, who has led both the corporate finance & restructuring services verticals, got a new wider role in May as Leader, One T&R (turnaround and restructuring), which is an integrated offering for clients across service lines and functions, a second person told Moneycontrol.

"Going ahead for sharper focus, Agrawal will handle corporate finance once he comes on board," this person elaborated.

Two other persons also confirmed his proposed move from EY to Deloitte.

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

Corporate Crossings

Queries sent to EY and Deloitte remained unanswered at the time of publishing this article, despite reminders. Agrawal was unavailable for comment.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Agrawal, an alumnus of London School of Economics and Politics Science, has over two decades of investment banking experience and has advised clients on strategic M&A and capital raising (equity and debt) from public and private markets.

Prior to EY, he has had stints at Credit Suisse, Jefferies, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, JM Morgan Stanley and KPMG.

Romal Shetty's Deloitte strategy

Romal Shetty came on board for a four-year term as CEO, Deloitte South Asia, starting April 1, 2023.

On July 21, 2023, The Economic Times reported that Deloitte had moved to poach multiple senior partners and more than 100 professionals in the deal advisory space from rival KPMG, including Vivek Gupta, Head (M&A and private equity tax) and Rohit Berry, National Head (Deal Advisory).

In October, as part of an expansion plan, Deloitte picked up PwC network firms in Sri Lanka and Maldives. The deal, one of the largest such combination deals in the region, involved 28 partners and 800 people, according to Reuters.

Alluding to the growth plans of Deloitte in a recent interview to Business Today, Shetty said the firm is looking to hire as many as 40,000 to 50,000 people over the next 4-5 years. It currently has a workforce of around 1.2 lakh in India.

A cricket buff, Shetty who is based out of Bengaluru, joined Deloitte India in May 2017.

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.