Senior M&A hires an outlier in sluggish job market

Hello,

Data published this week shows that India clocked a record 270 transactions in November, reflecting confidence across both strategic and financial buyers.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Mizuho said it would buy India’s Avendus from KKR for up to 81 billion yen, a landmark cross-border control transaction in Indian investment banking and wealth management.

Also, MUFG was finalising a deal to buy 20% in Shriram Finance for $3.2bn, one of the largest foreign strategic bets in Indian NBFCs, reinforcing Japan’s long-term conviction in Indian retail credit.

And finally, Flipkart seems to be getting IPO-ready as NCLT nods to a flip back of its domicile to India.

I hope you enjoy this week’s roundup – please connect on LinkedIn to discuss how Ideals VDR can help with your next M&A deal.

We will be back in January 2026, and the season’s greetings to everyone.

Let’s dive in.

Deal Tracker

Our weekly roundup of confirmed M&A deals in India.

Market Trends

Is this a hiring boom or a recycle?

While India’s overall job market has struggled to accelerate, senior hiring in the M&A and capital markets world is showing some movement worth watching as job moves preceded deal announcements.

One of the most visible shifts is in wealth and private banking. Axis Bank, for example, has said it will hire 50 experienced private bankers to deepen its wealth franchise and support investment product rollouts.

These kinds of hires matter in M&A because wealthy families, promoters and institutional investors are increasingly part of deal origination, especially around pre-IPO placements, structured financings and mid-market transactions.

Senior hiring also reflects broader exit and capital market activity. As India’s IPO and exit environment is unusually strong this year, with the market seeing a surge in listings, strong demand for IPOs by the likes of ICICI Prudential, and record exits that have created liquidity. When exits and monetisation opportunities grow, funds and advisory firms bring in experienced partners and deal leads who can navigate secondary markets.

This may be why cross-border hiring and strategic appointments are often repositioning. India’s IPO pipelines look unusually robust and growing private markets need mostly to lead integration, navigate regulatory stuff and cross-border executions. 

In private markets, the focus of senior hiring is on exits and monetisation, not deployment. The latest Bain/IVCA and EY data show that both IPO exits and secondary public market sales have been significant drivers of hiring activity this year, as sponsors take advantage of strong market windows. Such an environment calls for partners with public markets experience and structuring skills, rather than broad junior teams.

What’s not visible is broad scale hiring of junior staff or large graduate intakes. Banks have moderated general hiring, even as they add selective senior roles. Compensation at the top is rising, but teams underneath are being kept lean. Firms will pay for experience, but be cautious about expanding the base.

Senior hiring rarely becomes headline news, but it is a reliable signal of where deal flow and capital incentives are heading.