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IFR Asia GIFT City Financing Roundtable 2024

Nestled in the arid lands of north-west India sits Gujarat International Financial Tec-City – also known as GIFT City – the country’s most ambitious financial project to date. In a country known for its onerous red tape and strict capital controls, the special economic zone aims to be a global financial hub along the likes of Singapore and Dubai, and it is already off to a flying start. Drawn by tax incentives and accommodative regulations, over 700 organisations have flocked to the city, including over 30 banks, with 10 funds registering every...Read more

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IFR Asia GIFT City Financing Roundtable 2024: India Debt Capital Markets Participants

Ganeshan Murugaiyan BNP Paribas Ganeshan Murugaiyan is the head of corporate coverage and advisory in BNP Paribas. A 28-year veteran in investment banking, Murugaiyan has served as head of investment banking and has spearheaded several marquee deals for leading companies across onshore and offshore markets. Prior to joining BNP Paribas, Murugaiyan was head of investment banking at UBS Securities India where his key responsibilities included M&A and capital markets. He began his career at DSP Merrill Lynch where he worked for 10 years under...

IFR Asia GIFT City Financing Roundtable 2024: Developments at GIFT City Participants

Akshay Kumar BNP Paribas Akshay Kumar leads BNP Paribas’ global markets division in India, overseeing its performance and managing relationships with stakeholders such as regulators, government officials and clients. He joined BNP Paribas in 2011 and assumed the role of head of institutional sales in 2019. He brings over 17 years of experience from Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ and ICICI Bank, specialising in fixed income and currency markets/instruments. Kumar has a post-graduate degree in business management from XLRI, Jamshedpur and a...

IFR Asia GIFT City Financing Roundtable 2024: India Debt Capital Markets

IFR Asia: With US interest rates going down, what are the benefits for issuers to raise external commercial borrowings from GIFT City? And what about offshore bonds? Ganeshan Murugaiyan, BNP Paribas: As we move to a US$5trn economy, India has a very large financing need both for Indian corporates as well as multinationals looking at investing in India. To put it into context, if you just look at the renewable sector, we are looking at producing 500 gigawatts by 2030 and that will require approximately US$500bn in funding in the next seven to...

IFR Asia GIFT City Financing Roundtable 2024: Developments at GIFT City

IFR Asia: Banking transactions at GIFT City reached close to US$90bn between April to June 2024. Akshay, are you seeing fundraising in non-dollar currencies such as the Japanese yen and Swiss franc become more attractive through GIFT City for Indian borrowers? What are the benefits? And with the Fed just starting to cut rates, will this trend change? Akshay Kumar, BNP Paribas: Maybe I’ll just take a step back and talk about the overall fundraising ecosystem and how it has evolved over the last couple of years. Speaking specifically about the...