Arun Panchariya is an investment banker and entrepreneur. After entering the London market in 2003, Arun engaged in several business tie-ups in Europe and Asia and later in Africa. Now his businesses are widely operating across different nations. He is the owner and Director of Global Finance & Capital Ltd, a global investment advisory firm that is based in UK but carries out financial advisory services on infrastructure and national fund development projects in the EUMOA region and Somalia. Arun has over 20 years of experience in the global financial market and has worked on a wide range of industries in different global locations. Because of his substantial experience in the financial market, Arun Panchariya has assumed key roles in several business commissions and has held various certified positions in Financial Conduct Authority of UK. He is also a globally recognized adviser to multinational and middle market companies on strategic capital trades and international corporate finance models. Due to his ability to cultivate good and diplomatic relations with different governmental bodies among nations, Arun Panchariya was appointed to be Liberia's Consul General to the emirate of Dubai.
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Arun panchariya
1. PROFILE-‐
ARUN
PANCHARIYA
Arun
Panchariya
has
over
20
years
of
rich
experience
in
entrepreneurship,
industry
and
trading,
spanning
across
a
broad
range
of
geographic
locations
and
deal
sizes.
He
is
adept
in
the
trading
of
direct
equities,
commodities,
futures,
derivatives
and
other
financial
and
money
market
instruments.
He
offers
advisory
and
consulting
services
for
international
offerings
of
Indian
and
international
listed
&
non-‐listed
companies
and
has
strong
ties
with
debt
providers
and
equity
sponsors.
I
started
early…my
foundation
in
the
manufacturing
industry
helped
me
gain
a
lot
of
experience
in
grassroots
businesses
TEXTILE
AND
MANUFACTURING
Arun
started
his
career
in
1992
at
a
proprietary
concern-‐
Alka
Textile
Mills,
and
was
primarily
engaged
in
the
business
of
manufacturing
and
trading
of
textiles,
and
marketing
of
its
products
in
the
western
region
of
India.
In
1994/95,
Arun
joined
Alka
Spinners
Ltd.
(later
known
as
Alka
India
Ltd)
as
a
full-‐time
director.
It
is
here
that
he
gained
experience
in
the
manufacturing
of
100%
cotton
yarn,
blended
yarn,
textile
and
spinning
yarn.
He
also
learnt
soft
skills,
administrative
skills
and
corporate
culture
at
Alka
India.
Incidentally,
Arun
made
his
first
foray
into
the
financial
services
during
this
period,
when
he
successfully
handled
the
Greenfield
project
IPO
of
the
company.
Being
a
whole
time
director,
Arun
personally
designed
the
fund
raising
program,
and
in
the
process
learnt
in
detail
about
working
capital,
term
loans,
commercial
loans
and
the
underlying
processes
for
the
same.
Arun
joined
Panchariya
Gin
Pvt.
Ltd.
in
1998,
where
he
learnt
all
about
the
ginning
industry.
Dealing
with
suppliers
(farmers)
buying
cotton,
interacting
with
distributors,
wholesalers
and
traders
built
my
negotiation
strengths
and
more
importantly,
I
learnt
how
to
deal
with
different
kinds
of
people.
I
also
learnt
how
important
agricultural
products
are
in
our
day-‐to-‐day
life
and
how
farmers
work
hard
to
provide
the
same…
Alka
India
started
its
100%
export-‐oriented
software
business
around
the
same
time,
so
Arun
completed
his
MCSD/MCSE
courses
and
handled
this
new
stream
of
business
as
well.
During
this
period,
Arun
was
also
a
Director
with
Karnavati
Fincap
Limited,
which
then
changed
its
name
to
Vasudev
Textiles
&
Industries
Limited,
and
was
then
sold
to
new
management.
This
company
is
now
known
as
Asian
Granito
Limited,
now
one
of
the
largest
players
in
the
tile
industry
in
India.
The
decline
in
the
textile
industry
made
Arun
look
at
other
avenues
of
business,
and
in
1999,
was
appointed
as
the
CEO/MD
of
Kuber
Cooperative
Bank.
2. It
wasn’t
easy
leaving
my
comfort
zone
in
textiles
and
entering
financial
services.
I
had
the
IPO
experience,
but
this
was
a
different
ball
game
altogether.
However,
I
took
it
as
a
challenge
to
prove
myself…
BANKING-‐
THE
FIRST
STINT
At
Kuber,
Arun
dealt
with
all
aspects
of
retail
banking,
housing
loans,
trade
finance
and
commercial
banking.
He
handled
RBI
audits,
learnt
banking
policies,
and
attended
numerous
seminars
to
keep
himself
up-‐to-‐date
with
the
latest
in
the
banking
industry.
His
hard
work
showed
great
results-‐
at
the
time
of
taking
over
the
bank,
it’s
capital
&
networth
was
3
million
INR,
this
increased
to
20
million
INR(inclusive
profits
and
reserves)
by
the
time
he
retired
in
2003,
and
all
its
financial
years
ended
in
profit.
The
performance
graph
of
the
bank
during
his
tenure
was
always
taking
up
the
ladder
.
Business
travel
always
excited
me,
the
prospect
of
meeting
new
business
people,
exploring
new
business
ideas.
I
still
travel
extensively,
clocking
in
an
average
of
20
travel
days
a
month!
COMMODITY
TRADING
In
the
year
2000,
Arun
started
traveling
to
the
UAE,
where
he
saw
exciting
trading
opportunities.
This
resulted
in
him
establishing
a
general
trading
company-‐
Vintage
FZE,
in
Jebel
Ali
Free
Zone
in
Dubai.
Initially
trading
in
computer
hardware,
software
and
copier
paper,
Vintage
expanded
its
trading
portfolio
to
include
aluminum,
heavy
metal
scrap,
copper
scrap
and
commodities
like
rice,
pistachios,
saffron
and
vegetables.
This
hands-‐on
experience
in
commodity
trading
helped
Arun
build
his
base
in
the
trading
industry,
and
he
grew
the
company
from
a
turnover
of
US$
1.3
million
at
inception
to
an
impressive
US$
141
million
in
2009.
Meanwhile
Alka
India
also
started
a
division
for
trading
of
physical
gold
and
silver
bullion,
and
this
too
was
overseen
by
Arun.
The
success
of
Vintage
FZE
prompted
Arun
to
shift
base
to
Dubai,
and
he
voluntarily
retired
from
Alka
India
and
Kuber
Bank,
so
that
he
could
focus
on
his
trading
business
which
he
found
more
exciting.
In
2003,
Arun
became
a
member
of
the
DGCX
and
also
entered
into
a
tie-‐up
to
market
the
FX
online
trading
platform
of
RCG
FX
London,
which
was
owned
by
the
2nd
largest
commodity
broker
in
Chicago-‐
RCG
Group.
During
his
visit
to
London,
Arun
was
impressed
by
the
financial
market
there
and
saw
a
lot
of
opportunity
for
business.
I
was
impressed
by
the
work
environment
in
London,
the
pulse
of
the
financial
centre.
This
was
something
I
wanted
to
be
part
of,
and
I
knew
I
could
capitalize
on
my
banking
and
IPO
experience
and
create
a
financial
services
company…
FINANCIAL
SERVICES
Pan
Asia
Advisors,
an
international
corporate
advisory
firm
and
boutique
investment-‐banking
firm
was
set
up
by
Arun
in
2006.
Through
PAA,
he
advised
international
corporate
on
Private
Equity,
Mergers
&
Acquisitions,
GDR,
FCCB
and
debt
funding.
Arun
worked
on
numerous
transactions
and
assisted,
both
directly
and
indirectly,
in
raising
fund
of
more
than
USD
2
billion
3. in
the
international
market
for
global
corporates.
PAA
also
assisted
clients
in
listings
on
the
Luxemborg,
DIFX
and
Singapore
stock
exchanges.
I
have
exposure
on
various
sectors-‐Media,
Telecommunications,
films,
broadcasting,
textiles,
sugar,
metal,
retail,
oil,
industry
and
pharma
among
others.
This
gave
me
a
deep
insight
into
many
business
verticals,
and
I
wanted
to
do
more…
INVESTMENT
BANKING
Having
gained
rich
experience
in
a
variety
of
business
sectors,
Arun
now
set
his
sights
on
the
investment
banking
business.
His
trips
to
Europe
brought
him
into
contact
with
a
private
bank
in
Vienna-‐
Euram
Bank.
This
resulted
in
a
joint
venture
investment
bank
set
up
by
PAA
and
Euram
Bank
and
christened
Euram
Bank
Asia
Ltd.,
was
established
in
the
DIFC
in
2008.
Arun
was
appointed
President
of
the
bank,
and
the
head
of
corporate
finance
and
investment
banking.
He
spearheaded
a
number
of
transactions
in
the
first
two
years
itself,
notable
mentions
being
a
USD
3
billion
deal
for
an
oil
and
gas
industrial
park
in
Malaysia
and
gold,
coal
mining
and
oil
refinery
deals
in
East
Asia,
Australia
and
Africa.
Under
his
leadership,
Euram
Asia
declared
95%
dividend
in
Year
1
and
90%
dividend
in
Year
2,
which
was
a
huge
achievement
in
itself.
Investment
banking
brought
me
to
the
other
side
of
traditional
businesses;
while
my
heart
lay
in
the
operational
aspects
of
the
business,
my
mind
knew
that
investments
drove
such
ventures...a
dichotomy
of
sorts
INVESTMENT
FUNDS
During
2007,
Arun
started
working
on
setting
up
a
structure
to
enter
the
investment
funds
business.
The
result
was
Cardinal
Capital
Partners,
a
fund
management
company
set
up
in
Mauritius
and
regulated
by
the
FSC,
and
registered
with
SEBI
as
an
FII
as
well.
CCP
promoted
and
managed
IFCF,
which
started
operations
with
an
AUM
of
US$
3
million
and
a
Net
Asset
Value
of
US$
1
per
Share.
By
2010,
the
fund
had
grown
to
an
AUM
of
US$
110
million,
with
an
NAV
of
US
$
upto
5.34
per
share.
Arun
resigned
from
IFCF
in
June
2010,
due
to
his
pressing
commitments
at
EBAL.
SHIPPING
&
LOGISTICS
In
2006-‐07,
Arun
set
up
Vintage
shipping
and
logistics,
a
short
stint
in
the
logistics
business.
It
didn’t
do
as
well
as
expected,
partly
because
of
bad
market
conditions
prevailing
at
that
time.
Vintage
shipping
reinforced
one
lesson-‐
timing
is
critical.
It
didn’t
work
out,
but
I
will
not
give
it
up
until
it
does!
4. ALLEGATIONS
In
September
21st
2011,
Arun
was
caught
unawares
by
a
malicious
allegation
leveled
by
SEBI
on
PAA
and
himself.
This
was
particularly
surprising
since
both
PAA
and
he
did
not
even
come
under
the
jurisdiction
of
the
regulator.
SEBI
issued
an
interim
order
pending
investigation
which
they
subsequently
went
ahead
and
confirmed
on
17th
Jan
2012,
again
pending
further
investigation.
The
SEBI
allegations,
though
unfounded
and
baseless,
rocked
my
boat…I
resigned
from
EBAL
immediately,
resolving
to
prove
my
innocence
and
clear
my
name.
I
left
India
in
the
year
2002
and
became
an
NRI
to
expand
my
business
in
the
International
markets
where
I
am
regulated.
I
am
answerable
to
regulatory
bodies
local
to
the
jurisdictions
where
I
operate,
but
not
to
SEBI.
.
CURRENT
STATUS
Joined
Signature
Group
on
16th
January
2012
as
director
&
partner.
Signature
is
a
private
equity
and
corporate
finance
firm
focused
on
the
emerging
markets
of
India,
GCC
and
Africa.
It
currently
manages
US$
1.2
billion
of
investments
in
these
markets.
Arun
is
also
an
advisor
to
The
Falcon
Fund
Limited,
which
invests
in
the
mining
industry
globally.
AWARDS
AND
RECOGNITION
Arun
was
honored
with
the
“Business
Person
of
the
Year
2010
”
award
at
the
11th
Asian
Achievers
Awards
held
at
Wembley
Stadium,
London.
The
AAA
recognizes
the
various
outstanding
roles
played
by
Britain’s
Asian
community,
Arun
was
also
bestowed
with
the
Asian
Banker
of
the
Year
2010
award
by
Asian
Who’s
Who
International;
he
received
this
recognition
from
Ms.
Cherie
Blair
in
London.