Phone: +91 80 4377 9014

Our Team

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Vikas Suresh Kumar

Founder & Director


Educational Qualifications:

  • Bachelor of Commerce
  • ACA (Associate Member of ICAI)
  • ACMA, CGMA (Associate Member of CIMA, UK)

Background:

  • Vikas is a Chartered Accountant with over 20 years of post qualification experience specializing in Corporate Advisory (valuations, joint ventures, M&A deals, business advisory) across diverse industries
  • He was leading the South India valuations team at KPMG (for around 10 years) and branched out in October 2018 to set up his own company (Unithos Business Advisors Private Limited). He was instrumental in setting up the valuations practice in South for KPMG and built it to a leadership position in the region
  • Prior to joining KPMG in 2008, he has worked in the industry with Murugappa Group as part of the Corporate & Strategic planning team of the Group and went on to head the EMA region for the engineering business (Precision steel tubes); and with Ernst & Young in their Corporate Advisory practice (specializing in valuations and deals)

Key experiences:

  • As part of KPMG, he has worked on valuations across diverse sectors and leverages his industry background for application of valuation techniques blended with practical business nuances, entrepreneurial perspective and investor expectations
  • He has extensive experience in valuations of businesses, equity, brands, purchase price allocations and has advised a wide range of clients on merger swap valuations, joint venture situations, acquisitions, divestures, fund raise, restructuring, group consolidations, regulatory valuations, portfolio valuations, accounting valuations for purchase price allocation, impairment testing, brands and other intangible valuations
  • His key corporate clients in the past experiences included Kirloskar Group, ABB, Bosch, Jasmine (Firmenich), Kimirica (Hunter), DMG, GMR, Lucas TVS, Toyota Group, Rane Group, NSEIT, Toshiba Power, Landmark (Lifestyle) Group, Titan, Flipkart, UST Global, Quest, Ashok Leyland, MAN, Toyota Tsusho, TechMahindra, Sutherland, Apollo Hospitals, etc.
  • He is a regular speaker at various forums like VCCircle, i-Deals network, ICAI Valuations forum
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Jose Joseph Mekkalath

Senior Advisor (Kochi)


Educational Qualifications:

  • Bachelor of Commerce
  • Chartered Accountant

Background:

  • Jose has over 20 years experience in Assurance & M&A advisory. Jose has 10 years of experience with Big4 firms in India and in the Middle East wherein he serviced an impressive list of blue-chip companies and private equity firms. Jose worked with Deloitte and PWC in their assurance practice and with KPMG & EY in their M&A advisory practices.

Key experiences:

  • Assisted Actis Private Equity in their acquisition of Nilgiris
  • Sell side advisory on Kuwait Airways privatization
  • Assisted Investcorp Bank B.V. Bahrain in their acquisition of Middle East’s largest industrial gases company
  • Assisted Novartis in evaluating their vendor selection process in the KPO space
  • Assisted Caritor in their proposed acquisition of Chicago based IT and ITES company
  • Vendor due diligence for one of the largest players in Kuwait’s auto leasing sector
  • Assisted Goldman Sachs in their proposed investment in the largest cable service provider In India
  • Assisted Blackstone in their investment in Ushodaya Group of companies, South India’s largest media group
  • Assisted Blackstone Real Estate Fund in their proposed investment in Bangalore based hostel catering to corporate houses
  • Assisted TPG in their proposed investment in one of the largest low cost airlines in India
  • Assisted Morgan Stanley in evaluating their proposed investment in a Hyderabad based real estate company.
  • Assisted Carlyle India in their proposed acquisition of manufacturer of cement and cement boards
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Akash Mansinka

Senior Advisor


Educational Qualifications:

  • Masters in Commerce
  • Chartered Accountant

Background:

  • Akash is a Partner at Knovation Advisors LLP (Knovation), engaged in providing tax, exchange regulation, risk advisory and other services to Indian and Overseas companies.
  • Akash started his professional career with PriceWaterhouseCoopers and later served as Director at Ernst & Young India where he has gained wide experience in tax matters, including Corporate Tax, International Tax, Inbound Advisory, Outbound Advisory, Litigation Advisory etc. relating to multinational and domestic clients across a wide range of industries including Manufacturing, IT, Real Estate, etc.

Key experiences:

  • Advising on tax planning opportunities, preparation and review of corporate Income-tax returns (both domestic and foreign companies) including withholding tax returns
  • Representing before Income Tax Authorities, such as Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals), Assessing Officer and Transfer Pricing Officers
  • Reviewing tax position (including withholding tax) and tax exposure for clients in India and Bangladesh
  • Experience in income tax treaty shopping and advising on tax efficient alternatives for outbound and inbound international holding structures to the Indian and Overseas client
  • Setting up wholly owned subsidiary of multinational corporate in India and regularization from the perspective of company law matters, foreign exchange regulations and corporate taxation
  • Advising multinational companies on outbound investment, on tax and regulatory issues
  • Obtaining ruling from the Authority on Advance Rulings
  • Providing Audit support services across India for direct tax provisioning review
  • Due diligence, direct tax reviews and analysis of positions adopted by clients in India and Bangladesh
  • Implementing the preferred outbound international holding company structure in liaison with various overseas consultants
  • Formulating policies at corporate level from risk advisory and control perspective
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Akhilesh Kabra

Senior Consultant


Educational Qualifications:

  • Chartered Accountant
  • B A Hons (Economics)

Background:

  • Akhilesh is a Chartered Accountant with over 10 years of experience post qualification specializing in valuations and transaction advisory working in Big 4 in Delhi and London.
  • Akhilesh was a Senior Associate in the valuations team at KPMG until recently (for around 3 years) and was leading transaction related engagements across industrial sectors.
  • Prior to KPMG, he was in the Transaction advisory services team in Ernst & Young (London), specializing in valuations and deals.

Key experiences:

  • Akhilesh has worked with and advised several large domestic and multinational companies across several industries, including Media, Chemicals, financial services, Auto Components, Solar, Logistics, Infrastructure and others.
  • He has led teams in projects relating to M&A deals, regulatory valuations, financial reporting valuations (such as purchase price allocations, impairment testing, portfolio valuations, etc.) and complex valuations involving disputes and arbitrations.
  • He specializes in business valuations and modeling, review fair value of portfolios companies of private equity firms, unquoted equity/debt, private placements.
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Anish Ghuge

Consultant


Educational Qualifications:

  • Bachelor of Computer Applications, University of Pune
  • Master of Business Administration (MBA) Finance, Symbiosis International University, Pune
  • CFA Institute (US), CFA Level 2 Candidate

Background:

  • Anish is an independent valuation professional having 5+ years of experience in business valuation and transaction advisory services with Big4 advisory firms.
  • Anish specializes in business and equity valuations for strategic, financial reporting and regulatory purposes, purchase price allocations, valuation of intellectual property and valuation of intangible assets.
  • Anish was a Senior Associate in the deal advisory valuations team at KPMG until recently and was leading transaction related engagements across various industries.
  • Prior to KPMG, he was in the Business Valuation team in Deloitte US offices specializing in business valuations.

Key experiences:

  • During his tenure with KPMG, Anish worked on and led engagement teams for large clients. Some of the key contributions are:
  • Led an engagement team and advised The Blackstone group on one a billion-dollar acquisition in the glass manufacturing industry.
  • Worked on the purchase price allocation related to the acquisition of IndoStar Capital Finance by Brookfield Asset Management.
  • Assisted Glenmark Pharmaceuticals with the valuation of an under-development molecule.
  • During his tenure with Deloitte, Anish worked on and led engagement teams for large clients. Some of the key contributions are:
  • Led an engagement team for a tax purchase price allocation related to Walt Disney’s acquisition of Twenty-First Century Fox.
  • Led an engagement team for the purchase price allocation related to the acquisition of Harvey Weinstein owned Miramax Films by Paramount Pictures.
  • Led an engagement team for the recurring valuation of the film library of Revolution Studios.
  • Assisted a large U.S. SaaS player in a purchase price allocation related to their recapitalization by Bain Private Equity.
  • Assisted on the valuation audit of portfolio companies of major private equity players like The Blackstone Group and Softbank.
More profiles of team members to come soon…