Morgan poaches 4 senior JM hands

Morgan Stanley, which separated from its Indian partner Nimesh Kampani's JM Financial, has poached four senior executives including managing director of investment banking V K Bansal, from its erstwhile partner.

The poaching was done using a clause in the final split agreement signed early this year, which allowed both Morgan and JM Financial to poach five executives from each other.

The other executives having put in their papers with JM Financial are – Executive Directors D S Kamal Yadav, Divesh Desai and Sachin Wagle, director (capital markets).

In the first agreement, signed between Morgan Stanley and JM Financial, both the partners had agreed on a no-poaching agreement for two years. This was revised in the final agreement to allow each to poach a maximum of five executives, a JM Financial official said.

JM Financial last week promoted Managing Directors Atul Mehra and Adi Patel, as the new joint heads and CEOs of investment banking business. Dipti Neelakantan will join the board of directors of the investment banking business in addition to taking over as chief operating officer for the JM Financial Group.

Both, Atul Mehra and Adi Patel have frontline experience in investment banking and have been with the JM Financial Group for more than 15 years. Dipti Neelakantan has been with the group for over two decades.

They have been instrumental in building the organisation with their strong relationships and product knowledge. In their new roles, Atul Mehra and Adi Patel, will continue to strengthen and build capacity in the investment banking business and Dipti Neelakantan will oversee all firm management activities.

Meanwhile, after the separation of the joint venture with Morgan Stanley, the JM Financial Group firms have been rechristened. Its investment banking business (JM Morgan Stanley Pvt Ltd) will now be known as JM Financial Consultants Pvt Ltd; investment advisory business (JM Morgan Stanley Financial Services Pvt Ltd) will be known as JM Financial Services Pvt Ltd.