Leading global investment banking firm Morgan Stanley may soon take on board Shailendra Sabhnani as the new Head of Real Estate for its India operations , multiple industry sources with knowledge of the matter told Moneycontrol.
Sabhnani is currently Executive Director and Head of Real Estate at Kotak Investment Banking. A chartered accountant, he has worked with the domestic investment bank for more than 13 years and has had previous stints at Edelweiss Capital, UTI Securities and RSM & Co.
“Shailendra Sabhnani has resigned and is likely to join Morgan Stanley post the completion of his notice period at Kotak Investment Banking,” said one of the individuals cited above.
“ He has worked on several major real estate issuances in the last 3 years. The plan is for him to take over the role of S Sundareswaran who has exited and used to earlier lead the real estate vertical at Morgan Stanley,” added a second individual.
To be sure, in the last few years, Kotak Investment Banking has worked on real estate deals like the Embassy Office Parks REIT IPO, the Mindspace Office Parks REIT IPO promoted by Blackstone and K Raheja Corp , the Brookfield REIT IPO and the Embassy Tech Village acquisition by Embassy Office Parks REIT . Rival Morgan Stanley has also been very active in this burgeoning segment.
S Sundareswaran quit Morgan Stanley earlier this year to join real estate advisory firm Alta Capital and partner with ex-Blackstone executive Siddhartha Gupta.
Two other individuals also confirmed the proposed move of Sabhnani.
All the four individuals above spoke to Moneycontrol on the condition of anonymity.
Morgan Stanley declined to comment. Moneycontrol is awaiting an email response from Kotak Investment Banking and will update this article as soon as we hear from the firm. Shailendra Sabhnani could not be contacted for an immediate comment.
To be sure, a REIT or real estate investment trust is a company that owns, operates and manages, income-producing properties or real estate. Modelled after mutual funds, REITs pool the capital of numerous investors and generate steady income for their investors. REITs own many types of commercial real estate, ranging from office and apartment buildings to warehouses, hospitals, shopping centres and hotels.