Kalpesh Kikani Takes Charge as the New CEO of Piramal Alternatives

Piramal Enterprises onboards Kalpesh Kikani as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for its AUM Alternatives Business that is managed through its subsidiaries and joint ventures, which rely on Piramal Group’s partnerships with marquee Global investors namely CDPQ, CPPIB, APG, Ivanhoé Cambridge, and Bain Capital.

Commenting on the appointment, Anand Piramal, Executive Director, Piramal Group states, “We are delighted to welcome Kalpesh to the Piramal family. Kalpesh brings with him, rich experience in building an alternatives business of global scale and standard in India, a 25 year+ track record of successfully investing in India, and strong relationships with leading global investors.

While globally, alternative assets have grown rapidly over the last 10 years to over US$ 11 trillion, in India the asset class has grown much faster at over a 20 percent CAGR, making it one of India’s highest growth opportunities.

Our desire is to create a world-class Alternatives business across multiple asset classes that helps fill a significant deficit of long-term risk capital needed by Indian businesses as they help fuel India’s journey to a $5 trillion economy. The Alternatives business is another step in building a new age, digitally-driven, diversified financial services conglomerate at Piramal.”

Kalpesh brings in more than 25 years of expertise in investment and financial services. This experience also includes a decade as founding Managing Director at AION Capital (a JV between Apollo Global Management and ICICI Group). However, AION Capital is a leader in building an India-focused private equity business with a focus on value, credit, and control. While serving AION, Kalpesh had led both fundraising and deployment of about $1.25 billion of capital and also was part of the boards of several of its portfolio companies.

Prior to that, Kalpesh worked at ICICI Bank for more than 15 years. He held a significant role in building the bank’s commercial banking business to more than $10 billion in assets and the structured finance business to about $ 5 billion in assets. Before that, Kalpesh had setup and built the bank’s corporate and investment banking business in London to $4 BN in assets. He was even part of the retail banking team at the time of the merger of ICICI Limited and ICICI Bank Limited.

Kalpesh possesses a Bachelor of Engineering Degree in Computer Science and an MBA in Finance from Bombay University and is a member of the CFA Institute, USA.

Excited about his new role, Kalpesh says, “I am excited to join the Piramal team. Piramal Alternatives has a great business model, has partnered with best-in-class global investors, and is uniquely positioned to build a leading homegrown Alternatives business across private debt, private equity, and infrastructure, amongst others. As the Indian economy evolves, Piramal Alternatives can be a significant provider of customized financing solutions to high-quality Indian corporates who are looking to maximize their potential.”