People

Mohammad Sotoudeh

Co-Founder & Chairman Emeritus

Mohammad has more than 35 years of experience at senior levels in global banking and capital markets. Highly accomplished banker with extensive MENA and US track record.

His focus has been sovereign and corporate debt financings and investments, fixed income, credit trading and structured finance across the globe from the U.S. to the Middle Eastern and Asian markets.  Prior to founding Essdar Capital group, Mohammad served  in senior roles  in the United States and the MENA region in organisations like Citigroup, Daiwa Securities and Nomura Securities amongst others.

Mohammad has a unique insight in managing complex global transactions for Sovereign  and corporate financings and investments involving G7 and Emerging Markets.

Mohammad along with his colleague Suketu Sanghvi and some of the most prominent families from the UAE set up Essdar Capital Group in October 2007, just after the first phase of global financial crisis started and together they set up one of the most successful investment advisory and asset management platform in the special situations space regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority up to the year 2014. Thereafter, Essdar Capital Group decided to concentrate on niche advisory services such as Investment Consultancy, Management Consultancy and Strategy Advisory Services.

Mohammad holds a Masters Degree in Management from Harvard University and a B.Sc. in Engineering and a B.A. in International Relations from Tufts.

Suketu Sanghvi

Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer (Emeritus)

Suketu Sanghvi is the Co-Founder and CEO (Emeritus) of Essdar Capital Group, a firm he established in October 2007 amidst the onset of the global financial crisis. Under his leadership, Essdar Capital Managers Limited was incorporated in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and secured asset management authorization from the DFSA in 2008 for special situations investments. Demonstrating strategic foresight, Suketu deployed investment strategy after the Lehman Brothers collapse in September 2008. The firm’s buy-side special situations strategy achieved significant success, and the strategy was efficiently unwound in 2014. Thereafter, Essdar Capital Group decided to concentrate on niche advisory services such as Investment Consultancy, Management Consultancy and Strategy Advisory Services. Essdar Capital Group has managed investments and advised some of the largest investors and corporates in Middle East including Central Bank, Ministry of Finance, Sovereign Wealth Funds, Banks and MNC corporates.  Suketu has also been involved in ideation, acceleration and investment in multiple tech start ups in India since year 2015 in the financial, ed-tech, health-tech and data-tech sectors.

With a career spanning over 33 years, Suketu brings a distinguished track record in investment banking and asset management across India, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the UAE. A highly accomplished banker, he has been instrumental in transactions recognized with prestigious accolades such as the Euromoney, IFR, and ISR awards—an eight-time winner. He is widely respected for his expertise in emerging markets and has supported numerous tech start-ups in India on a pro-bono basis.

Before founding Essdar, Suketu was with Emirates National Securities Company in the UAE where he structured deals aggregating US$4bln which won the best deal of the year awards in 2007 internationally from IFR/ ISR and Euromoney. From 2000 to 2006, he served with ABN AMRO Bank across India, Singapore, and Hong Kong. At ABN AMRO, he specialized in structuring, underwriting, and investing in structured and high-yield debt, particularly within special situations and proprietary investments via the bank’s Asian ABCP conduit of US$ 2bln. He was an integral part of Asia’s leading debt capital markets team, earning multiple Euromoney and Finance Asia awards, as well as a Business India Deal of the Year recognition in 2002.

Earlier, Suketu worked with UTI Bank (now Axis Bank) from 1997 to 1999, where he played a pivotal role in building its investment banking division from the ground up. As a credit underwriter and trader, he also contributed to strategic idea generation and the establishment of new business lines, laying the foundation for the bank’s rise to the top of India’s investment banking league tables.

Suketu began his career in Mergers & Acquisitions, Takeovers, IPOs, and Venture Capital investments. Academically, he holds a diploma in Computer Programming, is a Chartered Accountant (rank holder), and a Company Secretary, having secured 2nd and 9th rank across India. He also earned the top rank in computer systems in his undergraduate studies at Mumbai University.

Antony Hatter

Principal, Person-in-Charge

Antony lives in United Kingdom after living in the Middle East for many decades (Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates). A highly experienced Global Markets Banking professional with an extensive and consistent proven MENA and UK regional track record.

Experienced in establishing and developing coverage models at senior / principal level predominately focusing on; Sovereign Wealth Funds, Central Banks, Financial Institutions, large Regional Corporate clients and family offices.

Competencies include solid product knowledge; Financial Markets, DCM, M&A, Real Estate, Private Equity, Private Banking, Asset Management and Wholesale Banking activities.

Experience includes over 30 years in the capital markets working with highly rated institutions like Standard Chartered Bank, ABN AMRO Bank, Alawwal Bank/ Saudi Hollandi Bank and Credit Lyonnaise.

Heading Global Markets and Origination and Distribution coverage across the MENA region and the UK with an extremely strong network coupled with an entrepreneurial approach to anticipate business and product needs in an ever-changing market environment.

Antony also has significant experience in the real estate property markets of United Kingdom and Middle East. He is a Managing Director at Hive Property & Investments Ltd.

Ram Chandran

Senior Partner

Ram has over 30 years experience in the fields of compliance, finance and accounting. He has completed many audits including statutory, revenue and compliance audit of banks, insurance, corporate and non-corporate bodies. Ram also has wide experience in taxation.

Ram has worked in various capacities in different companies based in GCC and India engaged in different segments from manufacturing, trading, hospitality to investment firms.

Ram holds a CPA from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and CA from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

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