Carlyle and Fairfax-backed Indian financial services firm IIFL Holdings announced Anil Ahuja, former Asia head of private-equity firm 3i Group Plc, has joined its India focused offshore (absolute returns and private-equity) funds as chief investment officer.

Ahuja has 29 years of international financial services experience and is recognised as one of the earliest and largest private equity investors in India.

Based in Singapore, Ahuja will help to grow IIFL's Global Asset Management and Advisory business (IIFL Global) which is currently in excess of US$4.5 billion, but will primarily focus on its absolute return funds, which has raised about US$40 million through two funds: IPEplus and Asia Star Fund.

To capitalize on the growing entrepreneurial spirit in India, IIFL Global will be raising another fund with Ahuja as fund manager in the early stage venture capital space that is not crowded by large global private equity firms yet.

"Partnering with India's leading financial advisory firm was a logical step to bringing a proprietary Investment strategy to the market" says Ahuja.

"India is looking very attractive for global investors and open architecture model, such as ours, gives us the advantage to showcase best in class managers to our clients," says Amit Shah, executive director, IIFL Global.

Ahuja, as the Head of Asia for 3i Group Plc, was instrumental in establishing the highly awarded US$1.2 billion 3i India Infrastructure Fund. Prior to 3i, he worked at JPMorgan Partners and Citi.