Private Equity Professionals

CX Partners names new managing partner

Jayanta Basu, partner at CX Partners, succeeds Ajay Relan as managing partner of the firm.

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Ajay Relan, founder and managing partner of New Delhi-based private equity firm CX Partners has stepped aside, with partner Jayanta Basu assuming the position.

Basu will serve as new managing partner of the firm and will be responsible for its daily operations.

The promotion of Basu will see 62-year old Relan become founder chairman of the private equity firm he established in 2009 together with partners Jayanta Basu, Tarun Khanna and Vivek Chhachhi.

Relan will continue to be on the investment and management committees of the firm.

Prior to co-founding CX Partners, Relan was the head of CVCI in India since its inception in 1995. Before CVCI, Relan worked with several financial firms in multiple geographies, starting with Citi in 1976.

Basu has had more than eight years of investing experience at Citigroup’s private equity arm in India, which Relan used to head. He has served on the boards of Convexity, Minacs, Security and Intelligence Services (India) Limited, TSI, Sutures India and Matrix Cellular.

Tarun Khanna, partner at CX Partners told Private Equity International: “From a leadership point of view, we believe Jayanta is the right person to lead the firm.”

“The move is something the firm had planned for in the last two years. A succession plan was in place whereby Jayanta started taking the lead role in terms of transactions and representing the firm, and now it’s more formal,” Khanna said.

CX Partners focuses on providing growth equity to mid-market companies in India and has made investments in different sectors ranging from power, electronics, hotels, telecommunications and financial services

Its portfolio companies include restaurant chain Barbeque Nation, food franchise Sapphire Foods India, financial services providers Ujjivan, South Indian Bank and Karur Vysya Bank, and laboratory testing services provider Thyrocare Technologies.

CX Partners Fund I, a 2009-vintage vehicle is fully invested and the firm will go to market in the next six to nine months to raise the second fund.