Northern Arc Capital ropes in UTI MF’s Leo Puri as Chairman

Non-banking finance company Northern Arc Capital (Formerly IFMR Capital Finance) has appointed Leo Puri as its first Independent, Non-Executive Chairman.

Established in 2008, Northern Arc Capital lends to MFIs and facilitates debt financing.

Puri, who was the Managing Director of UTI Asset Management Company until September 2018, has also been a senior partner at McKinsey & Company as well as Managing Director at Warburg Pincus.  

Puri has worked extensively in the UK, US and Asia over a career spanning three decades and brings to bear strategy, investing, and operating CEO experience.

Puri currently serves on the Boards of Hindustan Unilever and Dr Reddy’s as an Independent Director. He has also served as Independent Director on the boards of Max New York Life Insurance Company, Infosys and Bennett Coleman & Co.

For the last couple of years, the board and management of Northern Arc have been working on transitioning to a board-managed governance structure. 

Toward this cause, Dvara Trust, the founding promoter relinquished one of its board seats and handed over the position of Chair to independent directors.  

Northern Arc recently received the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) approval for a reorganisation scheme after which shareholders in the holding company became shareholders into Northern Arc Capital.  

As per the new structure, Northern Arc Capital is now a board-led company with no identifiable promoter.  

LeapFrog Investments, Eight Roads, Accion, Dvara Trust and Standard Chartered Bank are shareholders in the company. 

Till date, Northern Arc has raised over Rs 70,000 crore of debt for its clients, of which about 20 percent has come from its own balance sheet.