About Us

Key Milestones
People

One of India’s fast-growing and diverse financial services groups, Centrum has been serving the financial and advisory needs of institutions and individuals for two and a half decades.

Our Institutional services include Investment Banking and Broking to FIIs, Pension Funds, Indian Mutual Funds, Domestic Institutions etc. We also provide Wealth Management Services to HNIs and Family Offices, Affordable Housing finance in tier 2 & 3 cities and Retail Broking services. Our Asset Management business has funds across Private Debt and Venture Capital.

We have been providing MSME Loans and Micro finance for a few years. With these businesses now merged into Unity Small Finance Bank, our most recent venture, they are expected to scale up substantially. We are a PAN India Group with a strong leadership team of seasoned professionals with a successful track record, operating out of 140+ cities and with an international presence in Singapore.

Key Milestones

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Founders and Promoters

Late. K. Byramjee

Founder

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Khushrooh Byramjee a CA from UK, was a man of great integrity who had an unerring knack of overcoming challenges.

Chandir Gidwani

Founder & Chairman Emeritus

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A distinguished first generation entrepreneur. As the Founder of the company, he has set up a robust platform that offers integrated financial services for Institutions as well as Individuals. He has contributed greatly to building a strong reputation and goodwill for the Group and built a highly experienced and competent management team, which is poised to lead Centrum into a high growth trajectory. An astute investor with a vision of identifying businesses that have immense growth potential. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant

Jaspal Bindra

Executive Chairman

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A veteran Banker with a successful global MNC career spanning over three decades. He has held coveted positions across MNC Banks such as Standard Chartered, UBS and Bank of America and has an impeccable track record of leading large banks, driving profitable growth, Mergers, Acquisitions, Turnarounds and the list goes on. He has played a key role in transitioning the Centrum Group, from a pure play financial advisory business to becoming a diversified financial services group. His present focus is on steering Centrum’s Banking venture - Unity Bank into a New Age Digital First Bank.

Board of Directors

Chandir Gidwani

Founder & Chairman Emeritus

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Jaspal Bindra

Executive Chairman

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Mahakhurshid Byramjee

Non-Executive Director

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Mrs. Mahakhurshid K. Byramjee heads the real estate division of the Casby Group. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Commerce & Economics from Mumbai University.

She has been in the construction business for over three decades. She leads the company’s activities of the construction of Gated Communities and individual bespoke bungalows. She also runs a commercial fruit orchard on the outskirts of Maharashtra.

She is also heavily involved in social activities which are carried out by the family trust. The trust’s activities include running an English Medium School for tribal children in rural Maharashtra and running a free Diagnostic Centre for the poor in Mumbai.

Rishad Byramjee

Non-Executive Director

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Mr. Rishad K. Byramjee is the Managing Director of the Casby Logistics Group of Companies since 2003. Established in 1857, the company is a market leader in Stevedoring and Port Services business in India. He has a Master of Science degree with a specialization in Logistics and Supply Chain Management from the UK. Under his leadership, the company expanded its Logistics operations from a regional scale to a pan-India scale within the business verticals of Air, Sea, Surface and Rail Cargo movement. He leads the diversification and expansion program at Casby and has successfully initiated new businesses such as Hazardous Liquid Bulk Transportation, Logistics Solution Design, Warehousing and Refrigerated solutions. He is also involved in the growth of the other Group offerings that include Construction & Real Estate Development, Digital Security & Surveillance, Telecommunications and Software Development.

K R Kamath

Non-Executive Director

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Mr. Ramchandra Kasargod Kamath started his career in Corporation Bank as an Officer Trainee in 1977. He has been the Chairman of Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) and Governing Board of Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS). He has also been the President of Indian Institute of Banking & Finance (IIBF) and Bankers’ Club, Delhi. He has been the member of Governing Board of National Institute of Bank Management (NIBM), Pune and Governing Council of Institute for Development & Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), Hyderabad. During his career Mr. Kamath is known for his conceptual clarity, insight, communication skills and ability to build result oriented teams.

Mr. Kamath has led initiatives for promoting sound and efficient corporate governance practices where ever he worked. Mr. Kamath has been the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Punjab National Bank ( PNB ) and has been successful in changing the public perception about PNB and improving rankings of the Bank on various prestigious platforms is evidence to the fact. Under the leadership of Mr. Kamath, PNB’s rank improved from 186th to 175th in The Banker’s Top 1000 Banks of the World. Prior to moving to PNB, Mr. Kamath was CMD of Allahabad Bank and Executive Director of Bank of India.

Mr. Kamath was also the Chairman of PNB Housing Finance where he played a key role in divestment of PNB’s stake and making PNBHF the first successful PPP in the financial services space during his tenure growing 6x in 4.5 years to become the largest unlisted housing finance company in the country.

Anjali Seth

Non-Executive Independent Director

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Ms. Anjali Seth has over 35 years’ experience as a professional lawyer advising and consulting with Banks, Financial Institutions, and large corporates.

She started her career as a litigation lawyer and then moved to the corporate sector. She has advised and consulted on a range of matters including M&As, Private Equity (PE) Investments, Stressed Assets, Non-Performing Assets (NPAs), recovery matters, Industrial/Employee Relations, Corporate Governance, Real Estate Negotiations, etc.

She has been associated in various positions with International Finance Corporation, Swaadhar Finserve, ANZ Grindlays Bank, Emmar Properties and Standard Chartered Bank.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in law from University of Delhi and a bachelor’s degree in arts (honours) from Meerut University.

Manmohan Shetty

Non-Executive Independent Director

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Mr. Manmohan Shetty is the Founder of Adlabs Films Limited, one of the largest entertainment corporations in India. As the founder of Adlabs Films, he has produced many box office hit movies, and movies which have received National Awards, and India's biggest and largest Film processing Laboratory. He is also the founder of Adlabs Entertainment Limited, which has created and built India's biggest theme and Amusement Park, with a water park and 5-star hotel on the Mumbai - Pune Expressway, by the well-known brand "Imagicaa". Currently, he is a director of Thrrill Park Limited, Cineport Entertainment Private Limited among others. He is one of the most significant people in the Indian Entertainment economy today and is seen as one of the key visionaries in the industry. He was a Council member of the Film & Television Producers Guild of India. He has established India’s first and World’s largest IMAX dome theatre. He has held key positions in media & entertainment-focused government bodies & federations including the post of Chairman of National Film Development Corporation.

NVP Tendulkar

Non-Executive Independent Director

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Mr. Narayan has 37 years of experience in Finance, General Management & Operations in IT, Telecom, Manufacturing industries with American & European based multinational organizations & Tata Group (International business & Operations) with ability to resolve successfully multi-dimensional, dynamic & challenging issues of the Companies. He has successfully completed the program ‘HP Becoming a Business Partner: The CFO Mindset’ from The Wharton School in March 2006. He is also a qualified Company Secretary and Chartered Accountant.

Subhash Gundappa Kutte

Non-Executive Independent Director

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Mr. Subhash Kutte has been a Banker throughout his life. He had joined Ratnakar Bank in June 1980 and served the bank for thirty-four years, initially in an executive capacity across various departments, including MD & CEO, and in the last four years as its non-executive Chairman. He retired as the Chairman of RBL Bank Limited in the year 2014.

During his stewardship, the Bank has overcome enormous challenges which included the raising of Capital funds to the tune of 300 crores. He has an experience of four decades in the field of banking. He holds a bachelor's degree in commerce. Mr. Kutte acts as an “Advisor” to Ghatge Patil Industries Limited. He currently serves on the Board of several companies including Unity Small Finance Bank Limited, Synergy Green Industries Limited and Menon Pistons Limited.

S.K Mitra

Non-Executive Independent Director

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Mr. Subrata Kumar Mitra is a well-known veteran with hands-on experience in a wide range of financial services businesses in India. In his early years, Mr. Mitra worked with reputed organisations such as American Express Bank as Head of Corporate Banking and Investment Banking in India, Standard Chartered Bank- Merchant Banking Division, GIC Mutual Fund- where he brought one of the earliest foreign investors in the industry. Thereafter, from 1994 to 2007 he served as the Group Director, Financial Services in the Aditya Birla Group and set up the highly successful financial services business.

He has dealt with several global entities for entry into India and as joint venture partners. He has served on the Board of Directors and Committees of several reputed companies in different industries as an Independent Director and Advisor. He is also an advisor to a large international bank for over 12 years. He has been associated with several international and domestic NGOs, Committees and Chambers in India and is a contributor of articles in various publications. He has been the India Correspondent for Asia Asset Management, Hong Kong for more than 10 years.

Mr. Mitra holds M.Sc degree from University of Calcutta and an MBA from the USA.

Rajesh Srivastava

Non-Executive Director

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Rajesh Srivastava is a renowned corporate/investment banker with over 43 years of experience. He was with Rabobank for 25 years, with the last 14 years as the Managing Partner/Executive Chairman of a Rabobank sponsored private equity platform which had blue chip investors like Rabobank; IFC; CDC Group, Asian Development Bank; Generali Insurance, amongst others.

On the banking side, he was Managing Director (Corporate & Commercial Banking), India and Regional Head, Asia for food and agribusiness for 10 years where he is credited with setting up several new products such as Strategic Advisory, Renewable Energy, Carbon Credits and Micro Finance. Before Rabobank, he was with Lazard Brothers’ Venture Capital arm where he set up the largest VC Fund of the time for SMEs. He started his career with Bank of Baroda where he largely worked in credit management and merchant banking.

He is the seniormost sector banker for food and agribusiness and continues his commitment through his new platform, Prowess Advisors which is into investment banking and fund management.

R A Sankara Narayanan

Non-Executive Independent Director

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Mr. R. A. Sankara Narayanan, holds a post-graduate degree in Public Administration and has also done an MBA in Finance, CAIIB, PGDPM, PGDFM, DTIRM, DCP and BRM. During his reign as Executive Director of Bank of India starting from May 2015, he handled the treasury, corporate credit, recovery, risk management and compliance departments. He was also in charge of the departments like international banking, retail, HR, IT, planning and finance. He was appointed as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Vijaya Bank in September 2017. He had been designated as the MD and CEO of Canara Bank w.e.f. April 1, 2019, till his superannuation in January 2020. Mr. R A Sankara Narayanan has been on the Board of the South Indian Bank India Limited since October 15, 2020.

Essaji Vahanvati

Non-Executive Independent Director

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Essaji Vahanvati graduated with a B.A. LLB. (Hons.) degree from the Government Law College, Mumbai. He started his career in AZB & Partners (erstwhile CZB & Partners) directly after graduation, in 2003. Essaji was elevated to partner in 2009 and continued with AZB until 2015. Since then, Essaji was initially running his own independent practice and is now the Founding Partner of Ramanathan & Vahanvati, a boutique law firm providing M&A and corporate advisory services.

At AZB, Essaji’s focus was private equity and mergers and acquisitions (with a special focus on public market transactions, takeover offers and delisting). Essaji has worked for marquee private equity firms including Blackstone, Warburg Pincus, Temasek, KKR, CVCI and Apax. During his time with AZB, he has also led commercial litigation and arbitrations, as well as strategic and regulatory advice for various banks including, notably, HSBC and HDFC Bank. He also handled complex mergers and demergers.

After AZB, Essaji has worked extensively on distressed debt, restructurings and litigation (including the Supreme Court of India, Delhi High Court, Mumbai High Court, Chennai High Court and several NCLTs and DRTs).

At Ramanathan & Vahanvati, in addition to Mergers & Acquisitions, Essaji has also focused on providing advice to start-up founders to assist them along their journeys. His clients include several private equity funds, startups, corporates and family offices.

Essaji also serves as an independent director on the Board of Directors of Gland Pharma Limited (a listed company), Frontizo Business Services Private Limited and Appario Retail Private Limited (a joint venture between the Patni group and Amazon).

Essaji also runs the Dr. Goolam E. Vahanvati Scholarship Fund, a non-profit which provides scholarships to needy law students across India.

Essaji has been recognized as a leading individual by Chambers & Partners and the RSGLaw Firm Report for India.

Business Leadership

Nischal Maheshwari

Institutional Equities

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Nischal comes with over 20+ years of rich experience focused on Institutional Equities, having handled both the Research and Sales function for the Institutional Broking business, Investment Banking , Portfolio Management Services ,etc.

Nischal moves to Centrum after a long and successful stint as Head of Institutional Equities at Edelweiss Securities Ltd., where he led the large institutional business and equity research team of over 200 in Asia. He was instrumental in taking Edelweiss to the top spot in the Institutional Broking space. He has strong corporate relationships and is well networked in the equity markets and industry, having leveraged his relationships for closing Investment Banking deals as well, at Edelweiss.

Rajendra Naik

Investment Banking

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Rajendra has over 25 years of experience across multiple market cycles in Equity Capital Markets, Corporate Finance, Debt Structuring and Placements and Project Finance. He is a member of the team that founded the Centrum Group in 1996.

A Commerce Graduate, Rajendra has completed his Masters in Management Studies (MMS) from Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai

Initial Public Offer for Canara Bank Rs 3850 mn
Initial Public Offer for DB Corp Rs 3842 mn
Initial Public Offer for Adlabs Entertainment Rs 3750 mn
Initial Public Offer for Union Bank Rs 2880 mn
Initial Public Offer for Uco Bank Rs 2400 mn
Qualified Institutional Placement of Indiabulls Financial Services Rs 12,820 mn
Qualified Institutional Placement of Syndicate Bank Rs 11,500 mn
Follow-on Public Offer for Allahabad Bank Rs 8,200 mn
Follow-on Public Offer for Punjab National Bank Rs 31,200 mn
Right Issue for Godrej Consumer Rs 3968 mn
Right Issue for Jyoti Structures Limited Rs 3,694 mn
Buy Back of Deccan Chronicle Rs 3500 mn
Bond Placement of IDBI Rs 41,500 mn
Sale of Adlabs Film Exhibition business to Reliance ADAG Rs 7,000 mn

Ranjan Ghosh

Banking

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Ranjan has close to 25 years of rich experience in the Banking & Financial Service Industry. He brings a wide array of professional and industry contacts, a deep understanding of Risk Management and Financial Markets and international best practices in Governance, Human Resources, etc.

Ranjan joins us from Standard Chartered Bank where he was the Global Head of Commercial Banks, Securities & Asset Financing sector and was responsible for the P&L of the bank’s Wholesale Banking franchise. He has held several Senior Management roles in Standard Chartered in India and Singapore. He was also associated with HSBC and CRISIL.

Ranjan has done his Masters of Business Administration from The University of Northern Iowa - USA and Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Jadavpur University, Kolkata.

Sandeep Upadhyay

Infrastructure Advisory

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Sandeep Upadhyay joined Centrum Capital Limited in June 2008 and is currently serving as Managing Director of Infrastructure Practise at Centrum Capital Limited. As a senior Coverage Banker he is responsible for covering the Stressed asset resolution apart from leading Investment Banking initiatives across core sectors like Transportation, Logistics, Energy & Utilities space.

He is an alumnus from XLRI, Jamshedpur besides holding a Post Graduate Degree in Project Management specialising in Infrastructure sector alongwith a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Gujarat University. He has over sixteen years of extensive experience in raising Private Equity, Project Finance and advising Government & established private sector clients on M&A, Stressed asset resolution and Bidding initiatives.

Prior to Centrum, he worked with SBI Capital Markets and with IL&FS Group in financial advisory and fund raising domain on marquee Infrastructure Projects.

Sanjay Shukla

Housing Finance

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Sanjay has close to 25 years of rich experience in Financial Services that includes setting up of Housing Finance Companies and launch of Retail Banking business in newer geographies. He brings a wide array of professional and industry contacts, a deep understanding of Housing Finance, Consumer Finance, Retail Banking, Treasury Management, Internal Audit, etc.

Sanjay joins us from CentBank Home Finance Limited where he was the Managing Director and was responsible for the P&L of the Housing Finance Business. He has successfully transformed its business, delivered superior results to shareholders, built a high performing team, increased market share and profitability.

He has also worked with organization like ING Vysya Bank, Tata Capital Housing Finance Limited, Citi Bank and Hometrust Housing Finance Limited which was later merged into HDFC Limited.

Sanjay has done his Chartered Accountancy from The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and Graduation from Christ Church College, Kanpur University.

Rakshat Kapoor

Private Debt

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Rakshat Kapoor has over 18 years of experience in structured credit. Prior to joining Centrum, he was with Nomura Securities, Deutsche Bank’s structured credit investments and ICICI Bank’s structured finance team. Rakshat received his Chartered Accountancy from Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) from Delhi University.

Kapil Bagla

Credit Syndication, Debt restructuring and Advisory

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Kapil has more than 27 years of diverse experience in leadership positions across industries such as Financial Services & Media & Entertainment. He has worked in areas of Investment Banking, Corporate Advisory, Debt Capital Markets, Project Financing, Investment Management, Venture/ PE Investments, Business Management, Strategic and Project Planning and Finance. In his last assignment, he was managing the Family Office investments for the promoters of the Centrum Group.

As the erstwhile CEO of Adlabs Entertainment Ltd, Kapil was instrumental in creation of Adlabs Imagica – India’s first premier theme park destination. He was responsible for business management, strategic planning, project implementation, general management and corporate finance. He continues to serve on the Board of Adlabs. Prior to joining Adlabs Entertainment Limited he was working with Adlabs Films Limited as the Corporate Head – Strategic Planning and Acquisitions and Centrum Capital Limited as an Executive Director.

Kapil holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and Master’s degree in Management Studies with specialization in Finance.

Sandeep Nayak

Retail Broking

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Sandeep has over two decades of experience in capital markets covering Wealth Management, Equity Broking, Private Client Services, Portfolio Management and Distribution. He has previously worked with Kotak Securities and HSBC. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a Cost Accountant.

Inderjit Camotra

Banking

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Inderjit is a Senior Banker with over 25 years of experience across India in leadership positions at Standard Chartered Bank, ANZ and Citibank. He graduated from I.I.T. Delhi and pursued his MBA from Clarkson University in New York. A Gold Medalist (Nagaland Education Board), he was earlier Executive Director with Centrum Financial Services Ltd.(Promoter Entity of Unity Bank), and has played a key role in transitioning the Company into a Bank.

Corporate Resources

Deepa Poncha

Human Resources

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A senior Human Resources professional with over 22 years of work experience across a breadth of functions within the Human Resources field, Deepa has held H R leadership positions across leading domestic and international Companies.

Raji Vishwanathan

Legal, Compliance & Secretarial

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Raji has over 33 years of experience, of which she has spent 16 years with Larsen & Tubro. Her last assignment was with L & T Financial Services where in she was serving as Group General Counsel. Additonially, through her career she has worked with Batliboi Environmental Engineering Ltd. and Brittania Industries. Raji has completed her Bachelor in Science – Micro Biology, Diploma in Business Management and Masters in Constitutional Law & International Law.

Shailendra Apte

Strategic Initiatives

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Shailendra has been associated with the Group since inception, and has played a vital role in its growth and expansion. As part of Chairman’s office, over the years he has been directly associated with each one of our businesses and also has a deep understanding of the nuances of each. He has also helped structure our new ventures and always played an important role in their launches etc.

Sriram Venkatasubramanian

Finance

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Sriram Venkatasubramanian holds an engineering degree from BITS, Pilani and a PGDM from IIM, Bangalore. He has about 22 years of experience in Financial Services, Corporate Finance and IT.
He has been with Centrum Group for about 12 years in multiple roles spanning Business, Strategy and Operations for Capital Markets, Wealth Management and lending, Prior to Centrum, he has worked as the country manager of Aptuit Informatics, a software product company, Vice President in Esaar Group where he worked on Acquisitions and Financing.

Sushen Jhingan

Business Development & Strategic Initiatives

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Sushen has close to 25 years of rich experience largely in the Banking & Financial Service Industry. He has held a number of senior roles in Standard Chartered Bank, across Strategy and Governance, Public policy and advocacy, Sustainability , Strategic Sourcing and Vendor Management, Corporate Real Estate, Project Management and Operations. Sushen has completed Executive Leadership Program from Oxford and INSEAD post his Master’s degree.