Carlyle Establishes Experienced Buyout Team in India; Rajeev Gupta Named Managing Director and Head of India Buyout Group; Raj Dugar Named Director and Manoj Dengla Named Senior Associate

Mumbai, India - Global private equity firm The Carlyle Group today announced that it has established a buyout team in India with three experienced professionals. Rajeev Gupta, former Managing Director and Head of Investment Banking of DSP Merrill Lynch, was named Managing Director and Head of the Carlyle India buyout team. Raj Dugar, former Founding Director of Merlion India Fund, was named Director and Manoj Dengla was named Senior Associate. The team is based in Mumbai.

The Carlyle India buyout team is part of Carlyle’s Asia buyout group, which manages a $750 million Asia buyout fund. Carlyle also has two dedicated Asia growth capital funds totaling $323 million. Carlyle now has seven investment professionals in India conducting buyout and growth capital investments. They join a growing team of 57 investment professionals throughout Asia.

David Rubenstein, Co-founder and Managing Director of The Carlyle Group, said, "This is a substantial expansion of Carlyle’s investment activities in India and demonstrates our belief that India holds significant opportunities. This is a talented buyout team that will quickly and effectively establish Carlyle as a player in the India buyout community."

X.D. Yang, Managing Director and Co-head of the Carlyle Asia buyout group, said, "We are particularly pleased to have Rajeev leading our buyout activities in India. He is one of the best known and most experienced deal makers in India and well regarded throughout the region. Raj is also a significant part of our India team. He has a successful track record in the private equity space in India. We are pleased to have Manoj on the team as well."

Mr. Gupta said, "There is an enhanced need for investment capital in India today. Carlyle is an experienced capital provider and can add tremendous value to build companies across sectors. I welcome the opportunity to be a part of this new endeavor and to lead a talented team."

Mr. Dugar said, "The private equity environment in India is becoming increasing favorable for an experienced global firm like Carlyle. We are actively evaluating a number of buyout and significant minority investments. This is a great opportunity about which I am truly excited."

Rajeev Gupta

Rajeev Gupta comes to Carlyle from DSP Merrill Lynch, where he led several of the largest M&Amp;A deals in India, including the acquisition of ACC by Holcim and the acquisition of Hughes Telecom by Tata Teleservices Ltd. He set up the M&Amp;A business of DSP Merrill Lynch in 1995 and served in several senior capacities, including most recently, Joint Managing Director & Board Member, Member of the Executive Committee and Executive Vice President & head of Investment Banking.

Before DSP Merrill Lynch, Mr. Gupta was President and Chief Executive Officer of Cosmo Ferrites Limited, an exporter of soft ferrites. Under his leadership, the firm went from negative operating margins to paying dividends.

Mr. Gupta earned his M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and his Bachelor of Technology from IIT-Benaras Hindu University.

Raj Dugar

Raj Dugar comes to Carlyle from Merlion India Fund, a private equity fund sponsored by Standard Chartered Private Equity and Temasek Holdings. Prior to Merlion, Mr. Dugar was a founding Managing Director of Westbridge Capital Partners. At Merlion and Westbridge, he was involved in several notable transactions, including Celetronix and Punj Lloyd.

Prior to Westbridge, he was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong where he was responsible for India coverage and served on the board of Goldman’s Indian JV partner Kotak Mahindra Capital Company. Earlier, he was a management consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton in the United States and a member of the founding team of its Indian office.

Mr. Dugar earned his M.B.A. from MIT’s Sloan School and his A.B. in economics and engineering sciences from Dartmouth College.

Manoj Dengla

Mr. Manoj Dengla comes to Carlyle from Goldman Sachs, where he was an Associate in the Special Situations Group in New York focusing on investments in renewable energy and industrial utilities. Prior to that he worked in the Structured Finance and Leveraged Finance Groups with ICICI Bank and in the Corporate Finance Group with Unilever, both in India.

Mr. Dengla earned his M.B.A. with High Distinction from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar, his Masters in Management from the Indian Institute of Management and his bachelor’s degree in finance from Kanpur University. He is a Certified Chartered Accountant.

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