Sonjoy Chatterjee is Goldman India head

MUMBAI: After building Goldman Sachs' India operations from scratch in March 2006, its country head L Brooks Entwistle is relocating to Singapore as the US-based bank's chairman and head of investment banking for Southeast Asia, media agencies reported on Friday. Entwistle's position will be taken by Sonjoy Chatterjee, who last year moved from ICICI Bank to Goldman Sachs as its partner and co-CEO. Chatterjee's arrival had raised speculation that a change in management was in the offing at the India unit of the world's largest investment bank.


On Friday, in an internal memo to its employees, Goldman Sachs said that it has appointed Chatterjee as the bank's India chairman. Along with Chatterjee, the India franchisee will be overseen by Vijay Karnani, who currently heads Goldman's securities business. The memo named Karnani as the unit's co-CEO.


After splitting with Kotak Mahindra Bank, Entwistle started Goldman Sachs operations from a hotel room in south Mumbai. During the last five years, the bank has invested over $2 billion in India and has a presence in PE, broking, investment banking, offshore asset management and fixed income securities. In 2009, it applied for a banking licence and a primary dealer licence. During Entwistle's term-said to be the longest-serving expatriate head of a foreign bank-Goldman topped the M&A league in 2011 after it brokered the $9billion RIL-BP deal.


Last week, the bank snapped up Benchmark Asset Management, marking its foray into the Indian mutual fund industry. Goldman Sachs has around 3,000 employees on its rolls in India. Of those, a large number is housed at its outsourcing unit in Hyderabad.