Abizer Diwanji, veteran dealmaker and Head - Financial Services at EY, has resigned after a stint of nearly 11 years with the Big 4 firm, multiple people familiar with the development said on March 5.
Diwanji led EY's financial services segment - a group of 800 people and 27 partners - across advisory, tax and deals business, according to his Linkedin profile. He is also a partner in Transactions Advisory Services with a specific responsibility for restructuring and due diligence.
"Diwanji stepped down a while back, and an internal announcement to this effect has been made within EY, and the partners have been informed," one of the persons cited above said. Two other sources also confirmed the above development.
"Diwanji plans to pursue other professional opportunities. The plan is to take up select board positions at a later stage, possibly to explore something in the special situations space," said a second person.
When contacted, EY declined to comment. Diwanji could not be reached despite repeated attempts.
Diwanji has 26 years of experience in the financial services industry. Prior to EY, he spent nearly 15 years at rival KPMG, where he started the restructuring practice in India. He led the financial services vertical at the firm and was also a Partner in the Corporate Finance practice. He has also had stints at ANZ, KPMG (Dubai) and began his career at Arthur Anderson & Co.
Diwanji has executed and advised on more than 100 transactions, including ING's acquisition of Vysya Bank, TPG's investment in Shriram Finance, ICICI Bank's acquisition of Bank of Madura and Blackstone's acquisition of Intellinet, according to his Linkedin profile. During his tenure at EY, the firm worked on the resolutions of DHFL and Srei Group, among other cases.
Dealmaker churn in India
The past 12 months have seen multiple moves by Indian dealmakers and advisors from investment banks, Big 4 firms, private equity funds and management consulting firms who have joined rival outfits, turned entrepreneurial or embraced India Inc.
On January 20, Moneycontrol first reported that veteran investment banker and Joint MD of JM Financial Ltd Atul Mehra has resigned and emerged as the front-runner to join rival Axis Capital as its new MD and CEO. The exit was later officially confirmed by JM Financial.
Meanwhile, in December, JM Financial named 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.
On December 16, Moneycontrol reported the resignation of Chirag Agrawal, Partner (Investment Banking) at EY India. The report had added that Agrawal was gearing up to join rival Deloitte India as the latter's new head of corporate finance. The transition was officially confirmed later.
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).
Veteran Citi banker Ravi Kapoor retired last year and has set up his own deal advisory and investment firm, SACS Partners.
Utpal Oza, founding member of Nomura when it set up shop in India in 2006, stepped down as head of investment banking (India) and has been succeeded by Amit Thawani
In October, Ashish Jhaveri joined Jefferies as MD and Head of Investment Banking (India). On April 6, Moneycontrol reported the proposed move by Jhaveri, who was then the Head of M&A at rival investment bank Barclays.
Speciality chemicals firm Anupam Rasayan India named Gopal Agarwal of Edelweiss as CEO in September.
In July, Apax Partners confirmed that private equity veteran Shashank Singh, the head of its India office, had left the firm to move to London. Anurag Sud, an ex-Principal at BPEA EQT is the firm's current India head.
On May 28, Moneycontrol broke the story that top global management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has picked Rahul Jain as the new lead for its India office.
On March 1, Moneycontrol reported that Pratik Loonker of Investec was headed to ICICI Securities. Jayesh Visaria, head of healthcare and consumer i-banking at Barclays, quit the global bank in the same month. Earlier in January, Mahesh Natarajan, the ex-ECM head of ICICI Securities, was tapped by foreign investment bank Nomura.
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.
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