Shailendra Bhandari to head Tata Capital PE business

Currently, there are a host of Indian entities which have entered the private equity business including ICICI, Kotak Mahindra, Reliance Capital, IDFC, IL&FS, ICICI Ventures. Tata group company Tata Capital has also planned to enter the private equity business. Tata group company Tata Capital appointed Shailendra Bhandari, the former managing director and CEO of Centurion Bank of Punjab (CBoP), as head of its private equity business. Mr Shailendra Bhandari will report to Praveen P Kadle, managing director, Tata Capital.

Tata Capital is a non-banking finance company. Tata Capital is likely to launch a mid-sized fund of around $500 million. This fund is likely to be followed by a spate of other fund launches in a quick succession. One of it is also likely to be a fund targeting the small and medium enterprises. Sources said that Tata’s have ambitions to scale up the private equity fund business to a reasonably large size over the next few years.

Shailendra Bhandari has over three decades of experience in the financial services sector. He is former Citi banker, was part of the core team led by Aditya Puri in setting up HDFC Bank. He headed ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, before he was chosen by Rana Talwar’s Sabre Capital to head the beleaguered Centurion Bank. Shailendra Bhandari along with Mr Talwar at Centurion Bank made three acquisitions – BankMuscat’s India operations, Bank of Punjab, and Lord Krishna Bank.