Alastair Morrison to retire from Standard Chartered PE
Alastair Morrison, who was co-head of Standard Chartered Private Equity (SCPE) until earlier this year, will retire from the firm at the end of the month. The move is said to be independent of the restructuring taking place within SCPE that will reduce overall headcount to about 100.
The ground was laid for Morrison's departure in the spring when he stepped back to become vice chairman of Standard Chartered's principal finance division. Nainesh Jaisingh, who was promoted to co-head of global private equity alongside Morrison in 2011, now shares his duties with Wei Zhu, previously head of China.
It was reported last month that SCPE would shed around 12% of its workforce as part of a wider operational review. Standard Chartered is considering a withdrawal or scaling back of its activity in areas that lack strategic synergies with other parts of the bank.
Most of the job losses are expected to come in Asia and there have been reports of several impending departures from SCPE's Indian operation. A source close to the firm confirmed that three managing directors - Ravinder Singh Grewal, Mukul Nag and Rahul Raisurana - will leave. Ashish Jain and Anshuman Goenka, both senior directors, are also exiting.
The source added that, despite the reductions in headcount, Standard Chartered remains committed to private equity and continues to make investments. Most recently, SCPE invested alongside Boyu Capital in Multi Concepts Link Restaurant Management, which operates Chinese-style dessert cafés under the Honeymoon Dessert brand.
SCPE has invested more than $3.9 billion to date in mid- to late-stage companies across a variety of industries, focusing on Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
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