Sapan Gupta of Bajaj Finserv to join Shardul Amarchand to head banking & finance

MUMBAI: Sapan Gupta (37), chief legal officer at Bajaj Finance is joining Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM) as national head for banking and finance practice. This is second major scoop by the Delhi-based firm in Mumbai within a month after Shuva Mandal from AZB & Partners joined the firm to head national practice for M&A and transaction advisory.

An alumnus of Delhi University and Harvard Law School, Gupta was with Standard Chartered Bank as deputy head, wholesale banking-legal at India & South Asia before joining Bajaj Finserv in 2014. He will head national team for banking and finance which includes corporate finance, leverage finance, securitization, debt capital market and private wealth advisory.

"Recently the central bank has given licenses to small banks and payment banks and the firm is expecting a huge activity in the space," said a person familiar with the development.

Sapan, who likes to play badminton in his leisure time, is dual qualified from New York bench and from India. He has also worked with HSBC, ICICI Bank and Tata Housing.

"I always believe that the quality of the people that we hire is always important and this is part of that strategy," said Shardul Shroff, executive chairman of SAM, confirming the development.

When contacted, Sapan Gupta confirmed the development but refused to comment on the development. Officials from Bajaj Finserv were not available for the comments.