Over the years, the M&A sector in India has been experiencing rapid growth, with multiple parameters and industry gaps controlling the overall narrative. Previously, India didn’t have much of a market other than the listed public market. However, from venture capitals to private equities to REITs and INVITs, a lot of fund-related activities have emerged in the last decade resulting in a lot of transactional activities.
There is also a lot of disruption at the startup level, creating a lot of volatility amongst businesses. Because of the disruption, a lot of reorganizational activities are expected including fund raise and consolidations. Most importantly, regulatory oversights are increasing due to the ongoing complexity and volatility in the market. The regulators are becoming cautious, resulting in all kinds of funds, such as VC funds, PE funds, public funds, and so on, getting regulated in one way or the other. Further, global funds are looking at ESG criteria for investments. All of these factors are leading to a lot of activity in the M&A sector and its allied regulatory support.
Sensing a gap as well as a tremendous scope for M&A in the market, Vishal Laheri founded MNA Capital Advisors, a boutique corporate finance, transactions, and advisory firm, in 2015. Before starting MNA, Vishal already had a rich experience in strategy and transaction while working for many reputed organizations such as Reliance Capital Ltd and Ambit RSM.
The firm provides end-to-end solutions in M&A, fundraising, valuations, strategic transactions, corporate restructuring, and compliance activities, and has experienced strong growth and expansion in the last six to seven years.
Coming to the services offered, starting from corporate finance services such as investment banking and valuations to regulatory & governance support and compliance support, MNA Capital offers a gamut of services to its clients. As a reputed boutique firm, MNA Capital believes in a relationship model and is extremely selective about its clients.
The firm also has a one-point project leader approach. Unlike its peer organizations, which typically have a lot of silos, MNA capital has a unified approach to the entire M&A transaction. Even the team at MNA Capital is a mix of industry and consulting experts and has the experience of working with some of the biggest names in the industry both nationally as well as internationally. The team understands the challenges coming their way very well and most of the clients earned by the firm are due to positive word of mouth.
Coming to the future roadmaps, the firm doesn’t have any short-term goals as it has always been driven by relationships as well as business needs, and the growth of its clients. The firm has always preferred a long terms approach in terms of its future roadmaps. The firm has plans to break down the whole portfolio into three verticals.
The first part of those segments is about creating a Corporate Finance Solution Group, which will focus on investment banking, M&A, valuations and corporate finance advisory solutions. The second segment is about creating a Transaction and Regulatory Group, which will help with a variety of setups of companies both in India and overseas, transaction advisory, setting up succession planning, family settlements, governance support and so on.
As a reputed boutique firm, MNA Capital believes in a relationship model and is extremely selective about its clients
The last segment which the firm is currently establishing is a pooling vehicle for alternate asset investments in real estates, leased assets, etc for its client base. MNA Capital is growing its client base in these segments in India as well as internationally in countries such as Singapore, the UK, the US, and so on, and has a long-term objective to have its own or partner set up in these countries for better growth.
