Described as one of the largest exoduses in India’s wealth management space, 33 executives from ICICI Securities Private Wealth Management have quit to join newly launched WGC Wealth.
An arm of financial services group Wadhawan Global Capital, WGC Wealth made its debut in August after it hired the former chief executive of Julius Baer Wealth Advisors India, Atul Singh, reports local newspaper The Economic Times.
The firm currently manages around $20bn (£15.3bn, €17bn) of assets through its lending, investment and insurance platforms.
Meet the team
Among the new arrivals is Maneesh Kapoor, senior regional head at ICICI Securities Private Wealth, who has been hired as executive director for WGC’s north and east markets.
The south market will be served by executive director Sailesh Balachandran, previously south regional head at ICICI Securities Private Wealth.
About 26 people who joined from ICICI are front-end relationship managers.
WGC Wealth had previously hired senior executives from Julius Baer, IDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank to form a 70-member team in India.
WGC Wealth now has a 100-member team.
Chief executive Singh said: “We have a strong team with many high quality senior investment professionals on board. We plan to expand the team to 150 people by the end of this financial year.”
Massive market
Prior to WGC Wealth, Singh worked with Julius Baer where he had set up the wealth management business for India.
He said that the majority of high net worths are shifting their investment focus from typical real estate, fixed deposits and gold to diversified financial products, which is reflected in the heightened activities in the wealth management space.
Wealth managers in India are reportedly addressing a market with $1.5trn of investible wealth, which is expected to cross $3trn of personal investible wealth by 2022.
As the wealth management market has seen more action, senior level exits are quite common in India these days.
