Rashesh shah biography definition
Rashesh Shah's journey from a small office in Nariman Point to Edelweiss House
Education
Initial schooling was in Mumbai from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and Manav Mandir High School.
1983: KC College, BSc (Statistics). I was always interested in quants. After studying maths, economics and statistics for the first year, I opted for statistics.
1984: IIFT: Spent a year studying exports at the institute.
Work experience
1985-86: Worked at Srinivas Exports: I wanted to work before opting for an MBA, which wasn’t the norm back then. I worked in a small export house and spent a year in Uganda heading the Kampala branch.
1987-89: IIM Ahmedabad: I had a family business that dealt in stationary items but I was clear I wanted a job. At IIM-A, it was very intellectually challenging and stimulating environment and I started enjoying finance. On campus, I also met Vidya, my future wife.
1989: Management Trainee (Exports), ICICI: Joined along with Vidya. At a very early stage, I got exposed to a lot of situations with exportoriented companies. So in a way, it was a crash course in business.
1991-1993: Assistant Manager (Exports) ICICI: Economic liberalisation had just started after the currency crisis and we were dealing with a lot of export-oriented companies. One of the IT companies in our portfolio was Infosys. I started thinking about entrepreneurship, but a job, regular salary were still important.
1993-1995: Prime Securities: Joined the boutique ibank as head of research and investments. We had to do things outside of job like back office, systems and processes and even ordering PC and printers. It was a good stepping stone into entrepreneurship.
1995: Quit Prime Securities: Entrepreneurial bug had bitten and while servicing the Infosys account, Infosys Chairman Narayana Murthy would tell us that you guys should advise the new-age companies. There was an opportunity
Big idea for next year should be bonds: Rashesh Shah, Edelweiss
Tell us a bit about Fountainhead. It indeed looks a good initiative.
We started this about three years ago and the idea was to have our own leadership centre where people can come, do training and all that. So we have planned this and it is not like a resort, it is like a training centre and increasingly a lot of companies will need that where the senior management, a lot of employees can gather, training can happen, off sites can happen, all of that. So we now have capacity for more than 200 people in the confidence and it is only about half an hour from Mumbai. So it is great to have this.
For investors, is it time to revisit brokerage/ financial stocks?
It is a good industry study because we have always believed that financial services have got banking and capital markets. Capital markets for the last three years because they had hyper growth in earlier years. For the last three years, they have been going sideways because of all the reasons that I explained, but you cannot have the economy growing, the market cap growing, capital raising like we saw Coal India, unbelievable amount of interest and all.
So the size is going up, the amounts are going up and in India, capital markets are the heart of any economy. So if the economy is going to grow at 8%-9% a year, capital markets would have to act smart and capital markets expanding means brokerage, investment banking, all of that should grow. So it is a good industry to study. Unfortunately for the last three years, there have been growth pressures and profit margin pressures, but it is a good industry to study. In the coming 4-5 years, they look very exciting.
If investors are planning to buy Edelweiss stock, should they consider buying?
It is a good industry. I cannot say anything about Edelweiss stock o
Why Rashesh Shah of Edelweiss loves running metaphors
The 30-year-old Edelweiss, with a diversified portfolio of seven independent businesses, including EAAA (alternative asset and investment management), mutual funds, asset reconstruction, corporate lending, Nido Home Finance, Zuno General Insurance and life insurance, has a market capitalisation of nearly ₹10,000 crore. The group employs nearly 6,000 people across over 250 offices, serving around 9.1 million customers, and managing over ₹2.2 trillion worth of assets.
Over the next year, the company plans to list its seven businesses on stock exchanges and eliminate debt, Mint reported in October. This will start with its mutual fund division, Edelweiss Asset Management Ltd, and EAAAM India Alternatives Ltd (previously Edelweiss Alternate Asset Advisors Ltd), each valued over $1 billion, the report said.
Shah quotes management guru Peter Drucker who said that if a factory lacks hustle-bustle, that means crises have been anticipated and converted into routine. “That is our business," says Shah, nursing a cappuccino at Mumbai’s Willingdon Club, where he swims every morning. “If you talk to any pilot, 90% of the flight is on autopilot. There is no firefighting going on. It’s also another analogy for business."
The 61-year-old often uses running analogies while talking about his business. Long-distance running is a significant and influential aspect of Shah’s life, one of the reasons why he is not part of late-night parties and leaves office before 5pm. His curiosity to learn, an affable personality, combined with his largely successful business, also makes him a media favourite.
Also read: Harshil Mathur of Razorpay is all about sharp edges
Shah belongs to an entrepreneurial family—his father had a business in stationery—which ironically initially drew him away from entrepreneurship. In the 1970s and 1980s, being an SME (small and medium enterprises) entrepreneur seemed like too much hard work, too much
Edelweiss Group
Indian investment and financial services company
Edelweiss Group (officially known as Edelweiss Financial Services Limited) is an investment and financial services company based in Mumbai. It was co-founded by Rashesh Shah and Venkat Ramaswamy.
The company deals in various financial services ranging from brokerage services to life insurance and general insurance, private equity and other investment-related services through subsidiaries. It has a network of sub-brokers and authorised people across India. It is registered with National Stock Exchange of India, Bombay Stock Exchange and Multi Commodity Exchange.
History
Edelweiss was founded in 1995 by Rashesh Shah and Venkat Ramaswamy. Initially, the company worked on private equity syndication, mergers, acquisitions (M&A) and focused on advisory services.
Edelweiss worked on mergers & acquisitions, providing advisory and investment banking services. Edelweiss also offered equity broking, portfolio management, and wholesale financing services to individuals and corporates.
1996–2004
The company became a merchant bank in 2000. It was also helped start-ups raise funds via the non-IPO route, Venture Capital (VC) and Private Equity funds (PE). In 2000, the company had capital mark of ₹50 million. It acquired Rooshnil Securities in 2001.
2004–2012
During this period Edelweiss added institutional broking and non-banking financial company (NBFC) activity to its portfolio. In 2007, Edelweiss obtained its Clearing Member License. The same year, Edelweiss commenced asset management business with the launch of real estate funds.
In 2007, Edelweiss Global Wealth Management was established to offer wealth structuring solutions, asset protection, asset transfer strategies, risk management and investmen