Before the late 90s, issue of shares to the public was done only through the fixed-priced route, limiting market participation, with no price discovery mechanism. Instrumental in bringing the book-built IPO to Indian markets and paving the way for a new direction in capital-market history was Shanti Ekambaram.
For Shanti and her team, it took the full term, a whole nine months to bring out the first book-built IPO because it needed a complete re-vamp of the process of issuing IPOs. The only benchmark was in the global capital markets. Says Ekambaram, President, Consumer Banking, Kotak Mahindra Bank: "SEBI was really open to ideas to change the capital market. We had a crack team of nine people, working on every aspect of the IPO. For the first time, we had an institutional allocation, HNI allocation and retail allocation. I was fortunate to run that."
Shanti got into the largely male-dominated investment banking business at an early age, back in the early 90s when capital markets were opening up and newer forms of raising capital such as international GDRs were just taking off.
Ekambaram then moved to the domestic capital market and began developing a client base for the investment-banking division of Kotak Mahindra. Kotak Investment Banking started off as an underdog then. Soon after Ekambaram took the reins, however, the investment banking division catapulted to the number 1 position, where it has been ever since. Kotak Investment Bank was the first to discover technology and added domain expertise in pharma, infrastructure and other sectors.
When Kotak Mahindra Bank was formed in 2003, Ekambaram took up the challenge of running the wholesale banking division. The bank prudently stayed away from infrastructure lending during the booming mid-2000s as the risk-adjusted returns did not seem to warrant exposure. Says Ekambaram: "I saw the risk-adjusted return was not very good. Now, the whole thing has unwound."
Now, Ekambaram is leading a completely different segment in the retail banking division, where it's all about new products, systems and technology. Says she: "I have been a wholesale banker for all my life. Retail is about products, systems and technology, and less about the individual."
Recently, Kotak Mahindra Bank acquired ING Vysya Bank and once again Ekambaram had to don the investment-banking hat to ensure a smooth merger of systems, technology and products.
For her, the mantra of success is all about grabbing opportunities. "At every stage, when I had an opportunity, I took it. My mantra has been to keep learning, and believe in yourself. You have to go by the courage of your conviction. And you never be afraid to be wrong."
Ekambaram has also been driven by having the best people around her building strategy and taking the banking business forward. "I always have better people than me as that is one of the best motivations and drives banking business."
If she's not wearing her investment banking hat, Shanti Ekambaram is busy raising funds for various causes and non-government organisations and was recognized as the Highest Women Pledger in 2011.
BW Reporters
Having addressed business, stock markets and personal finance for the last 18 years, Clifford Alvares has ridden the roller-coaster markets - up close and personal -successfully, traversing the downs and relishing the rises. The greater part of his journalistic ventures has gone into shaping articles about how to shape portfolios