The signature move
A rating upgrade in the middle of a downgrade cycle.
When COVID-19 had the market marking companies down, I made the case for a reputed steel company to be moved up — convincing the rating agency to lift it from A+ to AA-.
Same balance sheet. Same collateral. A sharper story, backed by the right financial models and the numbers presented on the agency's terms.
A one-notch upgrade during a pandemic isn't luck — it's knowing exactly what a rating committee needs to hear, and proving it.
By the numbers
Fourteen years, measured in outcomes.
Selected engagements
Selected complex transaction frameworks.
Representative situations where the credit story — not the underlying business — was the constraint, and how it was reframed.
Case study · Structured alliance
An e-commerce banking alliance for a metals manufacturer.
Reducing digital promotional expense by half by turning a routine cost into a structured partnership.
A metals manufacturer set out to build a direct e-commerce channel for its products. Winning customers meant offering promotional rewards, and at the most fragile stage of the venture those rewards came straight out of the company's margins.
Rather than treat customer rewards as a cost the company alone absorbed, I structured them into a partnership — negotiating an alliance with a leading private bank that gained visibility and transaction volume in an emerging digital channel in exchange for co-funding the rewards driving those transactions.
- The bank absorbed a substantial share of promotional rewards under the alliance.
- The company's digital promotional expense reduced by half — with no reduction in the benefits customers received.
- An unavoidable cost repositioned into a shared, strategic investment.
A structured alliance built on a simple but overlooked insight: a cost widely accepted as unavoidable became a shared investment — and a durable competitive advantage.
How I work
I sit on your side of the table — and speak the bank's language.
Most advisors handover the file to the bank. I build the case: the financial model, the rating narrative, and the lender relationships that turn a "no" into "how much do you need?" — and when the banking channel isn't the answer, I raise it through capital markets, AIFs, offshore desks or surety instead.
Debt Syndication
Working capital and term loans under consortium and multiple banking, across Mining, Steel, Infrastructure and more — often doubling limits on the same collateral.
₹10,000+ Cr structuredCredit Rating Advisory
Positioning your numbers so your rating reflects your real strength — plus the banking compliance behind it: UFCE, FFRs, CMA and custom financial models. The A+ → AA- upgrade is the proof.
100+ ratings improvedTrade Finance & Forex
Buyer's and supplier's credit, LCs, SBLCs, hedging and risk management — the trade lines that keep working capital cheap and imports moving.
₹5,000+ Cr facilitatedCapital Markets & AIF
Beyond the banking channel: raising commercial paper and debentures (NCDs), and structuring funding through Alternative Investment Funds when the market prices capital better than the term-loan desk.
Commercial paper · NCDs · AIFOffshore & Cross-Border
Acquisition, working-capital and expansion funding for projects in Australia and Africa — structured through GIFT City (IFSC) for efficient, compliant capital flows.
₹300+ Cr arrangedSurety Bonds
A division I built from the ground up and scaled to a fully operational practice within a year, with direct relationships across underwriters and insurers — including first-of-its-kind cover for sole-proprietor applicants.
₹1,000+ Cr deliveredCapital beyond borders
Offshore & cross-border funding.
Structuring international capital for growth beyond borders.
I arrange overseas funding for projects across Australia and Africa, bringing deep expertise in international finance and cross-border transaction structuring. My work spans acquisition financing, working capital and expansion capital for clients entering complex foreign markets.
A representative engagement supported an Indian mining company's expansion into Australia — arranging funding for a mine acquisition as well as the ongoing working capital to sustain operations. The transactions were structured through GIFT City (IFSC), leveraging India's international financial-services framework for efficient, compliant cross-border capital flows.
GIFT City (IFSC) — the same regulatory framework that lets Indian capital reach foreign projects without leaving a compliant, well-governed structure.
Another division I helped build
Surety bonds — built and scaled in a single year.
A new business line, taken from zero to full operating scale.
I established the surety-bond practice from scratch and scaled it to a fully operational division within a year, with direct relationships across underwriters and insurers and over ₹1,000 Cr of bonds delivered to date across a range of domains.
The breakthrough was structural: I helped underwriters assess the risk of a sole-proprietor applicant — assembling the data support they needed and acting as the layer between company and insurer. A segment that had effectively been uninsurable became bankable.
By sitting between company and insurer as a data and risk-translation layer, I turned applicants underwriters used to decline into ones they could price with confidence.
Proprietary tooling
A model that scores a company's own customers for credit risk.
I developed a proprietary financial model to score the credit risk of a client's customers — turning subjective, relationship-driven credit calls into a disciplined, defensible framework. The model reads each customer across four dimensions and resolves them into a single score that maps to a recommended credit limit and payment terms.
Can they pay?
Liquidity, leverage, profitability and debt-service coverage, read straight from the customer's financials.
Do they pay on time?
Days sales outstanding, ageing of receivables, cheque-return history and adherence to agreed terms.
What does the market say?
Bureau and GST data, banking conduct and sector-level risk layered onto the internal view.
How much is at stake?
The requested limit weighed against the customer's capacity and the concentration across the whole book.
The output moved the business from gut-feel credit decisions to a data-backed policy: strong buyers were extended credit confidently and quickly, weaker ones were flagged before they became bad debt, and the sales team finally had an objective answer to "how much can we give them?" — lower bad-debt exposure, without slowing the sales the business depended on.
The relationships behind the deals
Direct lines to every major lender — in India and offshore.
Working relationships across the full spectrum of capital: public-sector and private banks, NBFCs and Alternative Investment Funds in India, and offshore banks reached through GIFT City. When a deal needs the right desk, I already know who to call — and they already know my file.
Where I've worked
Deep across the sectors banks find hardest to underwrite.
From capital-intensive heavy industry to high-growth lending books.
Beyond the balance sheet
Where purpose meets finance.
My journey has given me a different perspective on money and business — I've learned that financial decisions are rarely just about numbers.
Behind every company seeking capital and every balance sheet is a story of ambition, responsibility and hope. Today I help businesses raise debt, strengthen their credit profile and navigate complex financing — and what keeps the work meaningful is knowing that good advice can help a business grow and give its promoters the confidence to take the next step.
The challenges I faced early in life taught me resilience, empathy and the value of looking beyond the numbers. They still shape how I work — with curiosity, honesty and a genuine desire to solve problems.
I don't believe our starting point defines our destination. But I do believe it shapes the way we see the world.
It certainly shaped the way I see mine.
Let's start a conversation
Always glad to connect — let's start a conversation.
Whether it's reconnecting, comparing notes, or just saying hello, I'd love to hear from you.
Let's get in touch.
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Based in Kolkata