Amar Merani | Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer
Xander Finance Pvt Ltd | India
Based in Mumbai, Amar Merani heads Xander’s credit platform in India since 2012. He is responsible for its growth and profitability as well as regulatory interface and over-sight of the liabilities side of the business.
He brings with him over 22 years of investment banking, lending and consulting experience and has led several M&A and private equity transactions, IPOs and follow on equity offerings, as well as Project and Structured Finance transactions.
From 2007 to early 2012, Amar headed the real estate vertical of Kotak Investment Banking which raised over US$1.5 BB of equity for leading real estate developers in their public or private equity offerings to international and domestic institutional investors. He also led corporate restructuring and advisory assignments for leading real estate and infrastructure groups. During his tenure at Kotak, the firm was conferred the “Best in Equity Financing” awards in the Euromoney Poll for Real Estate in 2010 and 2011.
Earlier, from 2004 to 2006, Amar was with Lazard India where he helped revive the firm’s M&A franchise by generating and executing several transactions in the Telecom, Media and Technology sectors. Amar has also worked at IL&FS in the Corporate Lending, Project Finance Advisory and Infrastructure Debt Syndication team where he was responsible for the financial closure of one of India’s first BOT toll-road projects, and advised several power and telecom companies on project financing. He started his career with a stint at PwC in their Consulting practice in Mumbai.
Amar is an Electrical Engineer from VJTI, Mumbai and holds an MBA from NMIMS, Mumbai.
Appearances:
REIW Asia 2017 day 1 @ 12:10
Private Real Estate Debt Funds: The new normal?
- How does the mindset of private real estate debt funds differ? Is it true to say they are acting more as loan originators than raising money to take over legacy portfolios?
- Does this mark a growing trend of private equity funds pushing further into debt investments?
- What role will the banks play in these funds? Is it only ever going to be the senior debt?
- Is a declining junk bond market creating a buying opportunity from hedge funds and others that have been traditionally active in mezzanine loans and other high yield debt?
- A high quality security with an impressive yield: Is this simply the best option for defensive and income-focused investors?
- How applicable are private real estate debt funds for emerging markets? Will high value real estate opportunities in those markets still be considered, or are they really only for A grade geographies?
Organiser
