British International hires former Oman-India fund exec as South Asia PE head

British International Investment, the UK’s development finance institution, has hired a former executive of Oman India Joint Investment Fund as the South Asia head of its direct private equity vertical.

BII, which was until recently known as CDC Group Plc, has appointed Satish Chavva to the position.

Chavva assumed charge of his new role this month, according to his LinkedIn post.

Previously, he was with OIJIF as director of Private Equity Investments for almost six years. OIJIF is a mid-market PE fund set up by Oman Investment Authority, the sovereign wealth fund of the Sultanate of Oman, and State Bank of India, the country’s largest bank.

In his earlier stints, Chavva worked with Citi for more than 11 years and with IBM for a couple of years.

Chavva graduated in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He also has an MBA degree from INSEAD.

The appointment comes two months after BII named four new managing directors.

In February, the firm named Abhinav Sinha managing director and head of technology and telecoms, Amal-Lee Amin as MD and head of climate, and Chris Chijiutomi as MD and head of infrastructure equity for Africa and Pakistan.

It also appointed Yasemin Saltuk Lamy as MD and head of asset allocation and capital solutions.

CDC Group had announced the rebranding in November last year and formally became BII on April 4. At the time, it said that the rebranding was part of a refreshed strategy for the five-year period ending in 2026. It said it would scale in Africa and pivot to Asia and, in particular, Southeast Asia to provide green finance as part of the new strategy.

The firm is already one of the most active investors in emerging markets across Asia and Africa, both via direct deals and commitment to third-party managed private equity and venture capital funds.