Jayanti Bajpai has been appointed as the head of origination at Merrill Lynch’s Indian banking arm.
Bajpai has spent 20 years with the firm working in New York, Singapore, Hong Kong and London. Reports from Reuters say that Patti McLaughlin will stay on as vice chairman of India Origination.
Global financial firms have looked to expand their operations in India resulting in a growth of merger and acquisitions in the country in the last year. Outbound merger and acquisition deals from India surged to $23.1 billion last year, mainly due to the Tata Steel deal to buy the Corus Group which cost $13 billion.
India is a point of “strategic growth” for the company according to Damian Chunilal, head of Merrill Lynch’s Pacific Rim Organisation and Hemendra Kothari, chairman of DSP Merrill Lynch.