Pandit has teamed up with Altairos Group for launch.
AB Wire
Former Citigroup chief executive Vikram Pandit has teamed up with investment firm Atairos Group to launch a company that will buy significant stakes in mature financial services firms.
The Indian American Pandit will serve as chairman and CEO of the new venture, dubbed Orogen, which will have board members from Atairos, which was itself only launched earlier this year with backing from Comcast, according to a press release.
Pandit, who left Citi in 2012, has taken several punts on fintech startups looking to disrupt his old industry, investing in TransferWise, student lending outfit CommonBond and marketplace lending technology provider Orchard Platform.
However, Orogen will be looking to take more significant long-term stakes, sometimes controlling, in more mature firms with proven business models as Pandit sees a shift in the financial services industry caused by new technology, data-driven services and regulation.
Over time, Orogen argues, the FS landscape will evolve from one dominated by large, leveraged conglomerate banks and unregulated non-bank rivals to a broader and more decentralized network of vertical providers.
The Wall Street Journal reported Atairos, which is run by former Comcast Chief Financial Officer Michael Angelakis, has about $4 billion of Comcast’s funds under management and collects annual fees of about 1%, or $40 million, half of the typical rate for a private investment fund. It is unclear how much of Atairos’s fund Pandit will invest.
Atairos, which means “partnership” in Greek, launched earlier this year. Other partners include David Caplan, a former Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP lawyer, and Alexander Evans, former head of strategy at Comcast.
Former Citigroup head of strategy Ruchi Madan and former head of corporate communications Shannon Bell will join forces with Pandit, reported Jobs & Hire. Orogen is currently looking for new office space in Midtown Manhattan.
Pandit has history in financial-services dealings, selling his alternative-investment group Old Lane Partners to Citigroup for $800 million in 2006, a year before he was named Citigroup’s top executive. He received $165 million in the sale. The fund closed in 2008. Pandit left Citigroup in 2012 over disagreements with the bank’s board, reported the Journal.
His latest move follows three quiet years in which Pandit made a series of small investments in startups and deals in India, reported the Journal.
In 2013, Pandit took stake in JM Financial, a nonbank financial group in India. A plan for JM to become a bank didn’t pan out, but Pandit and JM more recently jointly created a real-estate investment fund. He also served as chairman of TGG Group, a consulting firm founded by University of Chicago academics including “Freakonomics” co-author Steven Levitt.