Ambit Global Private Client
Highly Regarded
Ambit Global Private Client’s CEO Amrita Farmahan likes to refer to her wealth managers as the team that Covid built. These 30-plus bankers innovated so they could thrive during the pandemic: the firm’s more than 1,500 ultra high net worth clients are in good hands, come what may in 2022.
Being part of Ambit Group, one of India’s premier providers of financial advice and capital, has its advantages, but the wealth management division has been a clear standout in delivering profits. Cumulative assets rose to $5.5 billion as business revenues surged 126% in 2021, year on year. That followed a 118% jump in the previous year.
For that, Farmahan gives credit to her seasoned client relations team, which has an average 15 years of private banking experience. Ambit Global Private Client also boasts a 16-member investment product and advisory team, an 11-member capital markets dealing desk and a 24-member client experience support staff.
Over the last two years, Ambit says it has had trouble hiring support staff fast enough to handle the surge in applications from ultra high net worth clients. Roughly 75% of the firm’s clients have a net worth of more than $50 million. Among those relationships are three of the top-10 Forbes richest families in India.
The Ambit team is also getting great traction with its One Ambit offering. It leverages the reach and resources of the broader financial group – across equity capital markets, institutional equities, investment banking and non-bank financial company relationships – to provide unique investment solutions.
The investment banking team gives private wealth customers access to private equity and venture capital transactions, as well as large private placements in infrastructure investment trusts, real estate investment trusts or other hot sectors. It also gives them access to IPOs, qualified institutional placements and privately placed block deals.
The wealth management team leverages the investment bank unit to provide research.
For example, wealthy clients got access to last year’s largest non-institutional placements of pre-IPO shares, including the largest derivatives exchange, the National Stock Exchange of India. They also had the chance to benefit from Ambit’s exclusive mandate to place shares of India’s oldest and largest credit information company, TransUnion Cibil.
The same was the case with the unlisted equity in one of India’s largest online insurance aggregator platforms – PB Fintech Private – and a structured investment banking transaction for UHNW clients to invest in Magma HDI General Insurance Company.
Ambit’s clients were able to get into startups including agri-tech names Cropin, WayCool and Fincare Small Business Bank. Ambit also raised funds for one of the best-performing consumption-focused venture capital funds, Sixth Sense India Opportunities Fund.