Carlyle ropes in former Blackstone executive Amit Jain as MD

Former Blackstone Group executive, Amit Jain, has joined global investment firm Carlyle Group as Managing Director. Based in Mumbai, Amit will co-head the Carlyle India investment advisory team with Neeraj Bharadwaj.

During his tenure as Senior Managing Director at Blackstone’s private equity group, Amit oversaw investments in the consumer, healthcare, auto, telecom and packaging sectors. He has served on the boards of EPL (erstwhile Essel Propack), Aakash Educational Services, Aakash Edutech, FINO Payments Bank and others. 

An alumnus of Indian School of Business, Amit has previously worked at Hindustan Unilever and McKinsey & Company. 

Separately,Carlyle announced the elevation of Neeraj and the head of healthcare in China, Ling Yang, to the role of Co-Head of healthcare practice across Asia. Carlyle has invested $2.8 billion over the last 15 years in its Asia healthcare practice. 

“We are thrilled to welcome Amit to the firm for this important role in India, a country which we believe offers some of the most attractive investment opportunities globally. His appointment underscores our commitment to further build-out our local team at a time of sustained economic growth and the emergence of exciting new technologies and derivative business opportunities,” said Greg Zeluck, Managing Director and Co-Head of Carlyle Asia in the statement issued by the company.

The appointments come soon after the Washington DC, US-headquartered private equity company reported record third-quarter distributable earnings of $730.6 million for the period of July to September 2021. Globally, shares of private equity firms have seen an uptick. Carlyle CEO Kewsong Lee has also set a goal of raising $130 billion in fresh capital by 2024, according to media reports. 

Since entering India in 2005, Carlyle has been doubling down its presence in the country and has invested $5.5 billion across 44 investments to date. The firm is also expected to liquidate shares worth Rs 920 crore in logistics company Delhivery, which it had backed in 2017. Delhivery has filed Draft Red Herring Prospectus with SEBI for potential listing early next year with an issuance size of Rs 7,460 crore.  

Earlier this year, Carlyle divested 1.9% stake in SBI Life Insurance Company for Rs 2,147 crore. Last year, in March, Carlyle had diluted 10 percent stake in SBI Cards and Payment Services' Rs 10,355 crore IPO.