Sanjay Sakhuja
CEO & Managing Director

Mr. Sakhuja has taken over the reigns of Ambit Corporate Finance since April 2009. He has the Managing Director in the Mergers and Acquisitions practice at Ambit since August 2003.

He has been instrumental in Ambit achieving a number of successful deal closures in this period, including the HDFC-CBoP Merger (2008), IDFC’s Acquisition of Standard Chartered Mutual Fund BNP-Srei Joint Venture (2007), the CBOP - LKB merger (2007), the Centurion Bank private equity placement (2006), the BNP - Geojit transaction (2006), the Centurion Bank - Bank of Punjab merger (2005), the sale of the AMP Sanmar Life Insurance business to Reliance (2005) and the sale of an auto component business to Hella (2005).

Prior to joining Ambit, Mr. Sakhuja has been a Managing Director at Lazard India (2000 - 2003), a Partner at Arthur Andersen (1994 - 2000), the Treasurer of Indal (1993 - 1994) and a Vice President at Citibank N.A. (1984 - 1993).

An Economics graduate from St Stephen's College (1980), Sanjay completed his CA from A F Ferguson (1983) and was merit ranked 5th across India. He recently completed the globally acclaimed Advanced Management Program at Wharton.

Sanjay Bansal,
Managing Director

Sanjay is a founder member of Ambit Corporate Finance and a seasoned Investment Banker. A Chartered Accountant by profession with Advanced Management from Kellogg School of Business, Northwestern; Sanjay has lead transaction closures for leading Indian Business Houses and trans-national corporations.

His previous work experience has been in Corporate Finance at KPMG and Arthur Andersen, while he has been in the Corporate Finance business for over 15 years.

As an expert negotiator, he has lead many marquee transactions to closure across industries such as Consumer Markets, Automotives, Media, Real Estate and Hospitality etc. Sanjay presently heads the “Alternate Capital” practice at Ambit Corporate Finance.

Chetas Desai,
Managing Director

Chetas Desai, a Chartered Account and Law graduate is Partner with Ambit at Mumbai. Mr. Desai’s area of expertise includes advisory services involving mergers & acquisitions and business re-structuring. In his career spanning over 15 years, Mr. Desai has led several complex assignments, some of them cross-border, involving Indian corporates and leading MNCs operating in India.

He was recently involved in the transactions of the divestiture of a construction equipment business to Manitowoc Crane Group Inc.; assisting in structuring of the Cairn India IPO. Prior to joining Ambit, Chetas was an Associate Director at Pricewaterhouse Coopers, where he advised MNC clients such as Bayer & Novartis on their M&A initiatives.

His core strengths lie in strategic analysis, project management and transaction structuring. Mr. Desai has a wealth of sectoral expertise in working with companies in the pharmaceutical, auto ancillary, and FMCG domains.

Nikhil Puri,
Managing Director

Nikhil Puri has recently joined Ambit Corporate Finance as a Managing Director. Nikhil brings with him a rich experience in the international Investment Banking space, based on his 12 year stint in New York.

Nikhil started his career with Arthur Andersen, back in the late 80s. Then, he worked with Lehman Brothers in New York for four years, and then moved on to Bear, Strearns, where he had been working for the past eight years. He was Managing Director, Healthcare Investment Banking Practice, prior to joining Ambit.

Nikhil has till date executed 45+ strategic and financing transactions covering pharmaceuticals, medical technologies and OTC’s spread over Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, USA and India. These deals have covered a diverse spectrum of the Investment banking activities including M&A (buy & sell side), sale of divisions and assets, leveraged buyouts, licensing/collaborations, and capital raising - private & public equity, bank and high yield debt.

A member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, India, Nikhil is a B.Com graduate and holds an MBA degree from the Stern School of Business, NYU.