Top ICICI Ventures execs to leave firm

Three top officials at the private equity arm of ICICI Bank, India’s No. 2 lender, have resigned to launch their own fund, following the footsteps of their former CEO last year.

Jayanta Banerjee, president of private equity practice at ICICI Venture, along with two directors, Anand Vyas and Sunay Mathure, submitted their resignations last week, ICICI Venture CEO Vishakha Mulye told Reuters.

Banerjee said that he and the other two executives would set up their own private equity fund, although details of their new effort are undisclosed.

Last year, Renuka Ramnath had resigned as the CEO of ICICI Venture to launch a new private equity fund, called Multiples Alternate Asset Management.

Private equity investment in India fell more than 60% to $4.4 billion in 2009, compared to $11.9 billion in 2008, according to VCC Edge, which provides data on mergers and acquisitions, and private equity and venture capital deals.

Analysts expect the tide to change this year on improving economic and corporate growth prospects.

ICICI Venture, which manages more than $2 billion of assets, is raising $500 million with an option to raise another $300 million for its India-focused fund, Mulye told Reuters in January. —Indulal P.M., Reuters