Heard on the Street: Bajaj Finserv

Keshav Sanghi to Join Goldman Sachs as India Equity Head
Keshav Sanghi, managing director and head of India equities at Citi, is moving to another leading foreign broking firm, Goldman Sachs. He will be joining Goldman Sachs as its head of India equities, according to persons familiar with the development. 


Mr Sanghi’s appointment is being viewed as the US firm’s efforts to broadbase its institutional broking platform which, in turn, will help scale up its investment banking activity in the country. When contacted , Mr Sanghi refused to comment. Richard Macfarlane, who is Citi’s head of execution services for India, will hold fort till such time a new equities head is appointed. In keeping with the past trend, Citi is likely to relocate someone from the Asia-Pacific region or bump up someone from within the team in Mumbai itself. In a recent move, Goldman Sachs had indicated it will relocate Ankur Sahu, a partner in its private equity business , to Mumbai from Tokyo as part of a reorganisation under which he will be co-head of PE for Asia. 

Shares of Bajaj Finserv zoomed to hit the 20% upper circuit on Thursday after one of its units Bajaj Allianz General Insurance announced a partnership with Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. The tie-up has fuelled speculation that it may eventually lead to an equity alliance with Berkshire investing in the company. The benefits of the deal, however, will come over time, said an analyst tracking the company. The Bajaj Finserv stock closed at Rs 527.5, with the counter attracting volumes 35 times higher than the two-week average. A total of 10.2 lakh shares changed hands on the BSE. Under the partnership , Berk-shire will sell and distribute Bajaj Allianz general insurance products in the country through its online distribution portal. Berkshire India will initially focus on motor insurance and will subsequently upgrade its business model to meet the needs of the fast-evolving Indian insurance sector. 

Bajaj Finserv Ltd.

BSE

563.00

06.74%

35.55

Vol:2036211 shares traded

NSE

561.85

05.96%

31.60

Vol:3889341 shares traded