RBS Realigns Top Talent From ABN Amro; Barclays Too Tap Into ABN

May 20, 2008 | by Sahad P V

As India emerges as one of the top destinations for M&A practice in the world, there is a severe catfight going on for talent in the investment banking business. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which acquired ABN Amro Bank last year, has hired three key people from the Dutch bank for Indian investment banking operations. At the same time, Barclays Capital poached five senior managers of ABN to head up their investment banking operations in the country and elsewhere.
RBS has appointed Manoj Agarwal as head of global corporate finance for India, Anjani Kumar as head of M&A operations, and Dilip Kadambi as head of equity capital markets business. This seems to be part of RBS’s integration process with the Dutch bank. So this is probably more like a realignment of work force.
Menon is currently based in Hong Kong, where he handles financial sponsors-led M&A advisory in Asia. Kumar moves from ABN’s M&A advisory group in London, while Kadambi currently works in ABN’s ECM business in India. Besides, RBS has also hired Varsha Valecha, who was a business leader in ABN’s India ECM team. Valecha has also worked with Enam Securities.