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Mihir Doshi's (just Mickey to friends) 10th floor office in one of Mumbai's most expensive commercial properties- Ceejay House in Worli - has a breathtaking view of the sea. Doshi was generous enough to offer us a vantage position - a seat with a view. He is friendly but also silently conveys that he has a work to do - flirting between mails popping up on his desktop and the pings on his BlackBerry, he tries to put a sense to the madness in the markets for us. Of course, he apologizes when he is distracted.
Although, he doesn't follow the markets on a regular basis anymore he is "fairly agnostic to a bit lower " on the market's direction. "I would go out on a limb and say it would go lower. The headwinds are quite high." We push for more and ask him about the global markets. "Our house view is that the probability of a recession in the US has risen, but the silver lining is corporate balance sheet remains healthy. A European debt contagion can tip the US economy into recession." As for US rating downgrade by S&P, he feels it was a largely anticipated move. But would it impact India ? "On the whole, the downgrade, especially as Fitch and Moody's have not followed suit, is unlikely to impact fund flows much," he observes.
These are challenging times for any finance professional. But 50-year-old Doshi, a US citizen, has seen it all. His journey in Credit Suisse itself has been a bit of a roller-coaster. Doshi joined the firm to restart its India business in 2006 and immediately rolled up his sleeves to resolve some of the legacy issues pending with the regulator. "I think the most difficult thing was to start a franchise in 2006-2007," the sharplydressed Doshi admits.
"Those were big bull market years with a fierce war for talent, and then there was the crisis in 2008. Within 18 months of starting the business, all of a sudden the markets imploded. So dealing with that was a huge challenge," he says.
"It's not easy to hire in booming markets. If you're part of a team that is doing well at a leading player and markets are booming, why switch?" And then came the crash of 2008. That was the time when talent was easily available but making money was difficult. "So this was a catch-22 situation," he reminisces. But is he worried about the impact of the downgrade playing out in India, particularly on his company. "Our underlying return on equity of 15% for the first half of 2011 underscores the strength of our business model. But managing in a counter-cyclical way is hard and financial services, in particular, is extremely competitive," he says.
A trained CPA, the equivalent of an Indian chartered accountant in the US, Doshi cut his teeth at Morgan Stanley, where he spent 21 years in three countries-US, Japan and India. Just before being picked up by the Swiss financial biggie he was the equities boss of Morgan Stanley in India.
He joined when Credit Suisse wanted to restart its India operations after completing a ban imposed by the government after the Ketan Parekh-related regulatory troubles. Staring out as a broking outfit in 2006, Credit Suisse became a category one merchant banker. It has a Sebi-registered portfolio management licence and has also acquired an NBFC. And now it has a bank branch, which Doshi is quite excited about. Doshi guards his private space and religiously hits the gym three days a week.
The weekends are,however,reserved for golf. Naturally, we ask him his handicap. "If you're going to be publishing this, let me give you the right one-19," he says rather sheepishly. "Else, all my friends who are going to read this are going to say, Mickey, you're a scamster." And despite his fetish for golf, it's actually a longish cricket bat that adorns his rather spartan office.
Having reached a critical mass, what are the challenges for him ? He mentions pressures of attracting and retaining talent as the first. "But I think Credit Suisse has met that very well," he says. Having been part of the market in three different continents at different phases of growth and slowdown, Doshi says the second clearly is the fact that inflation and, therefore, higher interest rates will catch up and have an impact on growth.
The third concern is what's happening with the government. "Whether it's the 2G scam or the Commonwealth Games scam, it's clearly a distraction. I'm not saying that actual fundamental growth on the ground gets affected, but the sentiment in the markets gets impacted by that for sure," he says.
When it comes to policy, he mentions further liberalizing FDI rules and divestment as the areas where the government should focus. On divestment, he feels if such offerings are concluded even in a bad market, it would be a strong positive signal. He, however, rues the fact that the capital markets are not supportive of a large offering right now. He should know as he, along with a few other merchant bankers, is closely involved in the government's divestment programme.
India Equity Research Reports, IPO and Stock News
Visit http://indiaer.blogspot.com/ for complete details �� ��
Mihir Doshi's (just Mickey to friends) 10th floor office in one of Mumbai's most expensive commercial properties- Ceejay House in Worli - has a breathtaking view of the sea. Doshi was generous enough to offer us a vantage position - a seat with a view. He is friendly but also silently conveys that he has a work to do - flirting between mails popping up on his desktop and the pings on his BlackBerry, he tries to put a sense to the madness in the markets for us. Of course, he apologizes when he is distracted.
Although, he doesn't follow the markets on a regular basis anymore he is "fairly agnostic to a bit lower " on the market's direction. "I would go out on a limb and say it would go lower. The headwinds are quite high." We push for more and ask him about the global markets. "Our house view is that the probability of a recession in the US has risen, but the silver lining is corporate balance sheet remains healthy. A European debt contagion can tip the US economy into recession." As for US rating downgrade by S&P, he feels it was a largely anticipated move. But would it impact India ? "On the whole, the downgrade, especially as Fitch and Moody's have not followed suit, is unlikely to impact fund flows much," he observes.
These are challenging times for any finance professional. But 50-year-old Doshi, a US citizen, has seen it all. His journey in Credit Suisse itself has been a bit of a roller-coaster. Doshi joined the firm to restart its India business in 2006 and immediately rolled up his sleeves to resolve some of the legacy issues pending with the regulator. "I think the most difficult thing was to start a franchise in 2006-2007," the sharplydressed Doshi admits.
"Those were big bull market years with a fierce war for talent, and then there was the crisis in 2008. Within 18 months of starting the business, all of a sudden the markets imploded. So dealing with that was a huge challenge," he says.
"It's not easy to hire in booming markets. If you're part of a team that is doing well at a leading player and markets are booming, why switch?" And then came the crash of 2008. That was the time when talent was easily available but making money was difficult. "So this was a catch-22 situation," he reminisces. But is he worried about the impact of the downgrade playing out in India, particularly on his company. "Our underlying return on equity of 15% for the first half of 2011 underscores the strength of our business model. But managing in a counter-cyclical way is hard and financial services, in particular, is extremely competitive," he says.
A trained CPA, the equivalent of an Indian chartered accountant in the US, Doshi cut his teeth at Morgan Stanley, where he spent 21 years in three countries-US, Japan and India. Just before being picked up by the Swiss financial biggie he was the equities boss of Morgan Stanley in India.
He joined when Credit Suisse wanted to restart its India operations after completing a ban imposed by the government after the Ketan Parekh-related regulatory troubles. Staring out as a broking outfit in 2006, Credit Suisse became a category one merchant banker. It has a Sebi-registered portfolio management licence and has also acquired an NBFC. And now it has a bank branch, which Doshi is quite excited about. Doshi guards his private space and religiously hits the gym three days a week.
The weekends are,however,reserved for golf. Naturally, we ask him his handicap. "If you're going to be publishing this, let me give you the right one-19," he says rather sheepishly. "Else, all my friends who are going to read this are going to say, Mickey, you're a scamster." And despite his fetish for golf, it's actually a longish cricket bat that adorns his rather spartan office.
Having reached a critical mass, what are the challenges for him ? He mentions pressures of attracting and retaining talent as the first. "But I think Credit Suisse has met that very well," he says. Having been part of the market in three different continents at different phases of growth and slowdown, Doshi says the second clearly is the fact that inflation and, therefore, higher interest rates will catch up and have an impact on growth.
The third concern is what's happening with the government. "Whether it's the 2G scam or the Commonwealth Games scam, it's clearly a distraction. I'm not saying that actual fundamental growth on the ground gets affected, but the sentiment in the markets gets impacted by that for sure," he says.
When it comes to policy, he mentions further liberalizing FDI rules and divestment as the areas where the government should focus. On divestment, he feels if such offerings are concluded even in a bad market, it would be a strong positive signal. He, however, rues the fact that the capital markets are not supportive of a large offering right now. He should know as he, along with a few other merchant bankers, is closely involved in the government's divestment programme.
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