CDC Group plc, the UK’s development finance institution, has appointed Alagappan Murugappan (Muru) as Managing Director for its Asia Funds team. He joins CDC in October and will manage the team responsible for the organisation’s fund investments across its target geography of South Asia, as well as its pre-existing investments in China and South East Asia.
Muru’s background is in private equity and investment banking and for the last two years he has been CEO of the private equity fund, UTI Capital (a subsidiary of UTI AMC, one of India’s largest asset management companies) where he managed a fund focused on the Indian infrastructure sector.
Prior to his role at UTI, he was Head of Investment Banking and Executive Director on the Board of ICICI Securities where he was involved in fundraisings of over US$10billion through public issues and private placements for a range of clients including the Indian government as well as large and small cap companies.
Muru worked for the private equity firm, Actis from 2004 until 2006 as a Principal in its India office. He helped to raise Actis’ first third-party fund and worked on deal generation and execution. His earlier career was in corporate finance with Cazenove where he successfully set up an investment banking business in India. He has a Masters in Law from Cambridge University.
CDC is one of the largest LP investors in Indian private equity with over US$680 million invested (and US$1.1bn committed), supporting almost 300 companies in the country.
“Muru has a wealth of hands-on investment experience in India and I am delighted that he’s joining CDC to lead our Asia funds team. Our new strategy means we have more ways than ever of getting capital into businesses in South Asia, including by investing directly. However, we remain committed to supporting funds investment in the region.
“CDC is one of the largest, long-term private equity investors in South Asia and despite India’s recent economic difficulties we will continue to back new and existing fund managers in the market. Our focus is on businesses that are commercially successful and have a powerful development impact through the creation of jobs. Muru’s expertise, knowledge of the market and relationships will enable CDC to continue to support funds aligned to our mission.”
Muru replaces Anubha Shrivastava who left CDC in 2012. In the interim, CDC’s Asia funds team has been led by Hiti Singh, Portfolio Director.
