About

As the general counsel – legal and compliance of GIP India since 2016, Vinod Joseph has earned industry credit for his role in overseeing various projects at the company. He explains how he landed the role: ‘I started working for IDFC Alternatives Limited as general counsel – legal and compliance in October 2016. IDFC Alternatives used to be a multi-class asset manager and the legal team I headed was responsible for its infrastructure, private equity and real estate verticals. In July 2016, the infrastructure asset management vertical, which was the largest vertical, was acquired by GIP, a very large, global infrastructure asset manager and I transitioned into a GIP India employee, doing almost the same job I was doing at IDFC Alternatives’. Joseph identifies working on the aforementioned transaction as a particular highlight in his career, saying, ‘there were many lessons to be learnt as I was a “conflicted party”’, the party (buyer) on the other side would become my employer’. He is commended for expertly preparing new compliance policies for GIP India by managing expectations, acting quickly whilst meeting international standards. Joseph has also been involved in a number of significant deals in the last three years for both GIP and IDFC such as the acquisition of an equity stake in four solar power SPVs from First Solar India by a fund managed by GIP India as well as the acquisition of a 30.34% equity stake in Ascend Telecom Infrastructure from IL&FS and N K Tele Systems and a 90% equity stake in two road SPVs from GR Infraprojects by a fund managed by IDFC Alternatives.