Samir Ojha joins EY's Mergers & Acquisitions arm as a partner

EY India has appointed Samir Ojha as a partner in its Mergers & Acquisitions business. 

Ojha joins the professional services giant from Credit Suisse, where he was a director in its investment banking arm. He latterly led the firm’s investment banking operations in India, and earlier in his nine-year spell at the Swiss bank, he setup and led the bank’s mergers and acquisitions practice in the country. He has led and been part of dozes on major deals in India, Asia and beyond.

Before working for the Zurich-headquartered bank, Ojha worked four year at Kotak Investment Banking, one of India’s leading home-grown investment banks. Latterly, he served as an associate vice president.

A chartered account and expert in corporate finance, Ojha went to Indian Business School after working as a senior analyst at CSC Information Technology and Services for two years.

At EY, Ojha will focus on expanding the firm’s dealmaking profile, at a time when the M&A market is anticipated to rebound following four months of largely reduced activity. Data from Mergermarket shows that in the first half of calendar year 2020, deal count plunged by 25% year-on-year to 243 transactions. Deal value however rose 15% to $43.54 billion, but that was driven by an outlier – Reliance Industries selling a stake in its digital services arm Jio Platforms.

According a benchmark Bain & Company, India is the second largest deal market in the Asia Pacific. 

Ojha specialises in M&A advisory, equity and debt capital market issuances, and infrastructure advisory, working for corporates, private equity firms and family offices.