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Sir Keir Starmer has appointed one of many UK’s greatest related Metropolis advisers as his level of contact with company executives and worldwide traders, as the brand new prime minister seeks to deepen his celebration’s ties with enterprise.
Varun Chandra, the managing companion of Hakluyt, a London-based consultancy based by former MI6 intelligence officers, will turn out to be Downing Road’s particular adviser on enterprise and funding, Labour figures mentioned. To take up the publish, the 39-year-old has resigned from Hakluyt, which he has led since 2019, and can take a big pay minimize to work for the federal government.
Chandra, Hakluyt’s highest-paid director, was handed £2.1mn within the 12 months to June 2023, the newest yr for which it has filed accounts, in keeping with Firms Home filings.
His new position is ready to be an vital one for the brand new Labour authorities, which has made financial development the centrepiece of its agenda and has sought to construct shut ties with executives.
With the general public purse constrained, Starmer and chancellor Rachel Reeves are courting non-public funding from inside and out of doors the UK to fund new infrastructure in a departure from Starmer’s predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn.
Chandra’s networking skills will now be put to the take a look at as he seeks to take care of a few of these hyperlinks whereas ministers turn out to be extra preoccupied by the day-to-day tasks of working the federal government.
Hakluyt mentioned final yr that it advises 40 per cent of the world’s most beneficial firms and greater than 15 of the highest 20 non-public fairness companies.
One in every of Chandra’s early duties will in all probability be to handle relations with the non-public fairness trade, with the brand new Labour authorities set to seek the advice of on its pledge to finish a “loophole” that enables buyout executives to learn from beneficial tax therapy of the earnings they make from profitable offers.
Chandra as soon as labored as an funding banker on the now-defunct Lehman Brothers and is near Sir Tony Blair, having labored for the previous prime minister for about six years from 2008 as he started to construct his non-public advisory enterprise following his exit from frontline politics.
He has been on the forefront of Hakluyt’s efforts to forged off its fame for working within the shadows and transfer into the mainstream of the skilled companies sector. The group, whose advisory board is chaired by former Tory chief Lord William Hague, gathers intelligence by way of a mixture of analysis by its 200 employees and insights from a community of 1000’s of individuals with backgrounds in enterprise and authorities around the globe.
Firms then use this info on company, regulatory and geopolitical points to help decision-making in areas corresponding to mergers and acquisitions. As a part of its efforts to maneuver deeper into Silicon Valley, Chandra launched Hakluyt Capital and raised about $50mn for the agency’s first-ever enterprise capital fund.
Chandra performed a task in luring Sir Olly Robbins, the previous Brexit chief negotiator, from Goldman Sachs to Hakluyt early final yr, the place he’s accountable for company shoppers in Europe and the Center East.
Robbins is now in a robust place to take up a senior Whitehall position within the new Starmer-led Labour authorities, doubtlessly as cupboard secretary or as everlasting secretary at 10 Downing Road. Likewise, Chandra employed Emily Benn, the granddaughter of Tony Benn and a well-connected Labour determine who’s seen as a probable future MP.
The boss of 1 rival mentioned that though he was sceptical of Hakluyt’s potential to develop given its mannequin of counting on this community to collect intelligence, Chandra had been a really efficient and spectacular chief.
Downing Road’s enterprise adviser publish was beforehand held by Franck Petitgas, a one-time Morgan Stanley banker, beneath Rishi Sunak’s administration.
