Private Credit, Distressed, Stressed Assets & ARC Leadership
Credit & Special Situations
Executive Search
50+ Credit & Special Situations Placements — with an average 100 Days time-to-placement and a 12-month candidate guarantee.
50+
Credit & Special Situations Placements
100 Days
Avg. Time-to-Placement
86%
Offer Acceptance Rate
12 Months
Candidate Guarantee
Specialisation withinPrivate Equity & Venture Capital·Unlocking Value Through Leadership
Private-credit and special-situations leadership in India operates across the private-credit platforms of global buyout and credit managers (Blackstone Credit, KKR Credit, Carlyle Credit, Apollo Global Management, Oaktree Capital, Ares Management, Cerberus Capital, Brookfield Credit), the Indian private-credit funds (Kotak Special Situations Fund, Edelweiss Alternatives, ICICI Prudential AMC Alternatives, Piramal Alternatives, BPEA-EQT Credit, Nuvama Private Credit), the Asset-Reconstruction-Companies operating under SARFAESI / IBC architecture (Edelweiss ARC, JM Financial ARC, Phoenix ARC, ARCIL, Reliance ARC, Invent ARC), and the stressed-and-distressed-asset investment platforms executing IBC-resolution-plans, SARFAESI-enforcement, one-time-settlements, and restructuring-advisory across banks / NBFCs / corporate-borrowers.
Is This Your Situation?
If any of these sound familiar, you're speaking to the right practice.
→Global private-credit manager scaling its India private-credit platform running Head-of-Private-Credit succession — confidential search across senior-credit-investment credibility and credit-underwriting-and-structuring stewardship.
→Indian private-credit platform (Kotak SSF / Edelweiss / Piramal) running Managing Director succession — search across domestic-private-credit-origination credibility and Indian-credit-market stewardship.
→Asset-Reconstruction-Company running CEO succession — search across SARFAESI-and-IBC-resolution credibility and bank-and-NBFC-relationship architecture stewardship.
→Stressed-asset-acquirer running Chief-Restructuring-Officer / Turnaround-CEO engagement for a newly acquired IBC-resolution portfolio company — search across turnaround-execution credibility and resolution-plan-implementation stewardship.
Our Credit & Special Situations Track Record
Situation:
A global private-credit manager scaling its India private-credit platform needed Head-of-Private-Credit succession. The brief required senior-credit-investment credibility, credit-underwriting-and-structuring stewardship, Indian-BFSI-and-corporate-relationship architecture fluency, collections-and-workout discipline, and the governance rhythm of global-private-credit India operations.
Outcome:
Placed a Head of Private Credit with prior Managing-Director tenure at a top-tier Indian NBFC-wholesale-lender (with 15+ years of corporate-credit-and-structured-credit origination) and subsequent Head-of-Credit-Strategy tenure at a competing global private-credit platform. The fund's India-deployment-pace, credit-quality-metrics, and recovery-architecture progressed materially within 18 months.
Situation:
A strategic-acquirer taking-over an industrials portfolio company through an approved IBC-resolution-plan needed Chief-Restructuring-Officer / Turnaround-CEO engagement. The brief required distressed-and-stressed-company-turnaround credibility, resolution-plan-implementation stewardship, working-capital-and-vendor-management discipline, and the specific CRO-and-turnaround-CEO rhythm.
Outcome:
Placed a CRO with prior Managing-Director tenure at a turnaround-consulting firm (with 12+ years of distressed-and-stressed-company-turnaround experience across industrials and manufacturing) and subsequent Turnaround-CEO tenure at another IBC-resolution-portfolio-company. The portfolio-company's operational-stabilisation, vendor-and-employee-engagement, and working-capital-trajectory progressed ahead of plan within 18 months with material enterprise-value outcomes.
All client details anonymised. Specific mandates available for reference under NDA upon request.
Our Credit & Special Situations Practice
Private-credit and special-situations leadership in India operates across the private-credit platforms of global buyout and credit managers (Blackstone Credit, KKR Credit, Carlyle Credit, Apollo Global Management, Oaktree Capital, Ares Management, Cerberus Capital, Brookfield Credit), the Indian private-credit funds (Kotak Special Situations Fund, Edelweiss Alternatives, ICICI Prudential AMC Alternatives, Piramal Alternatives, BPEA-EQT Credit, Nuvama Private Credit), the Asset-Reconstruction-Companies operating under SARFAESI / IBC architecture (Edelweiss ARC, JM Financial ARC, Phoenix ARC, ARCIL, Reliance ARC, Invent ARC), and the stressed-and-distressed-asset investment platforms executing IBC-resolution-plans, SARFAESI-enforcement, one-time-settlements, and restructuring-advisory across banks / NBFCs / corporate-borrowers.
As a specialist CEO mandates in stressed-and-distressed companies, our practice also covers CFO placements in restructuring-and-turnaround companies, our practice also covers Private Equity & Venture Capital practice overview, and as a source for PE/VC — infrastructure & real-estate PE.
The Credit & Special Situations Landscape Today
Indian private-credit AUM exceeded ₹2.5 lakh crore by late-2025 across global and Indian private-credit managers — with annual deployment of ~₹75,000-1,00,000 crore driven by the gap left by bank-deleveraging, the maturation of AIF Category-II credit-fund architecture, and the Insolvency-and-Bankruptcy-Code 2016 (IBC) resolution-platform providing enforceable-recovery architecture. The IBC, since operationalisation in 2016, has resolved 1,000+ cases with ~32-35% average recovery on admitted-claims — well above the pre-IBC ~25% SARFAESI benchmark. Large-ticket resolutions (Essar Steel → ArcelorMittal-Nippon, Bhushan Power → JSW, Jet Airways → Jalan-Kalrock, Reliance Communications → Reliance Projects & Property Management, Videocon → Twin Star / Vedanta, Dewan Housing → Piramal Capital, Srei → NARCL-National-Asset-Reconstruction-Company, Future Retail attempts) have established the IBC-resolution-market. The National-Asset-Reconstruction-Company (NARCL) launched in 2021 with a ₹2 lakh crore bad-loan-consolidation mandate. SARFAESI-enforcement, DRT-proceedings, and pre-pack-insolvency-for-MSMEs supplement the IBC.
Key Leadership Challenges in Credit & Special Situations
Head of Private Credit / Managing Director at global private-credit manager India operations requires senior-credit-investment credibility, credit-underwriting-and-structuring stewardship, collections-and-workout discipline, and the governance rhythm of global-private-credit India operations.
Managing Director / Head of Alternatives Credit at Indian private-credit platforms requires domestic-private-credit-origination credibility and the specific Indian-private-credit rhythm.
Chief Executive Officer / Managing Director at Asset-Reconstruction-Companies requires SARFAESI-and-IBC-resolution credibility, bank-and-NBFC-relationship architecture stewardship, and the specific ARC rhythm.
Head of Special Situations / Head of Distressed Investing succession requires IBC-resolution-and-stressed-asset-acquisition credibility and the specific special-situations rhythm.
Head of Collections and Recovery at private-credit platforms requires workout-and-enforcement credibility, bank-and-NBFC-relationship architecture stewardship, and the specific collections-and-recovery rhythm.
Resolution-Professional / Insolvency-Professional panel leadership requires IBC-CIRP-and-liquidation-process credibility and the specific RP-engagement rhythm.
What We Look For in Credit & Special Situations Leaders
Across mandates, credit & special situations leadership tends to cluster into a small set of archetypes. We calibrate each search against the profile your board actually needs — not the one most commonly available.
The Global Private-Credit Head / Managing Director
Senior-credit-investment leader with senior-credit-investment credibility, credit-underwriting-and-structuring stewardship, collections-and-workout discipline, Indian-credit-market architecture fluency, and the governance rhythm of global-private-credit India operations.
The Indian Private-Credit Managing Director
Senior investment-professional with domestic-private-credit-origination credibility, Indian-BFSI-and-corporate-relationship stewardship, credit-underwriting-and-structuring discipline, and the specific Indian-private-credit rhythm.
The ARC Chief Executive Officer / Managing Director
Senior leader with SARFAESI-and-IBC-resolution credibility, bank-and-NBFC-relationship architecture stewardship, resolution-planning-and-value-maximisation discipline, RBI-and-IBBI-engagement architecture fluency, and the specific ARC rhythm.
The Special-Situations / Distressed-Investing Head
Investment-professional with IBC-resolution-and-stressed-asset-acquisition credibility, resolution-plan-formulation stewardship, strategic-bidder-engagement discipline, and the specific special-situations rhythm.
The Chief Restructuring Officer / Turnaround CEO
Turnaround executive with distressed-and-stressed-company-turnaround credibility, resolution-plan-implementation stewardship, working-capital-and-vendor-management discipline, stakeholder-and-lender-engagement architecture fluency, and the specific CRO-and-turnaround-CEO rhythm.
The Head of Collections and Recovery / Head of Workout
Collections-and-recovery expert with workout-and-enforcement credibility, bank-and-NBFC-relationship architecture stewardship, SARFAESI-and-DRT-and-IBC-enforcement discipline, and the specific collections-and-recovery rhythm.
Regulatory & Compensation Context
Regulatory Backdrop
Private-credit and special-situations activity sits at the intersection of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 (IBC — with CIRP / liquidation / pre-pack / cross-border architecture, administered by the IBBI and adjudicated by NCLT / NCLAT / Supreme Court), the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act 2002 (SARFAESI — enabling ARC-registration, security-enforcement, and Asset-Reconstruction), the Recovery of Debts Due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act 1993 (DRT architecture), the SEBI (Alternative Investment Funds) Regulations 2012 (with Category-II AIF credit-fund and Category-I AIF Infrastructure / SME / Social-Venture-sub-categories), the RBI Act 1934 and the NBFC Master-Directions (for NBFC-ICC / NBFC-IFC / NBFC-MFI registration and prudential-architecture for NBFC-structured private-credit), the RBI Asset-Reconstruction-Company (Reserve Bank) Directions 2003 (as amended) and the RBI Master-Directions for ARCs 2024 (governing ARC-registration, minimum-net-owned-fund, sponsor-architecture, and resolution-mandate), the Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999 with FEMA Non-Debt-Instruments Rules 2019 (governing External-Commercial-Borrowings / ECB and masala-bond architecture), the Companies Act 2013 (including Section 230-234 for scheme-of-arrangement, Section 66 for capital-reduction, Section 230(11) for cross-border-merger, and the broader scheme-and-merger architecture), the IBBI (Insolvency-Professionals) Regulations 2016 and the IBBI (CIRP — Corporate-Insolvency-Resolution-Process) Regulations 2016, the GST Act 2017 (for GST-implications on distressed-asset-transfer), the Income-Tax Act 1961 (including Section 56(2)(x) on property-received-below-FMV, Section 79 carry-forward-of-losses on ownership-change architecture, and IBC-specific tax-benefits), the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002 (PMLA), the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act 2019, and sector-specific regulations (RBI, IRDAI, NHB, SEBI, IFSCA for GIFT-City credit-fund architecture). The IBC-amendments through 2023-25 (including pre-pack for MSMEs, cross-border-insolvency architecture, and Group-Insolvency proposals) and the NARCL-and-IDRCL architecture are relevant.
Compensation Architecture
Private-credit and special-situations leadership compensation mixes substantial base-plus-bonus with material carry / incentive-architecture. Head of Private Credit / Managing Director at global private-credit manager India operations ranges ₹3.5-7 crore base + ₹3-6 crore annual bonus + material carried-interest (typically 4-10% of fund-level carry allocations for senior roles). Managing Director / Head of Alternatives Credit at Indian private-credit platforms (Kotak SSF, Edelweiss Alternatives, Piramal Alternatives) ranges ₹2.5-5 crore base + ₹2-4.5 crore annual bonus + carry architecture. Head of Special Situations compensation ranges ₹2.5-5 crore base + ₹2-4 crore annual bonus + stressed-asset-resolution-linked-carry architecture. ARC Chief Executive Officer / Managing Director compensation ranges ₹2-4.5 crore base + ₹1-2.5 crore annual bonus + recovery-linked-performance-incentive architecture (typically basis-point-linked on recovery-realisation against acquired-claims). Head of Collections and Recovery compensation ranges ₹1.5-3.5 crore + recovery-linked-bonus architecture. Chief Restructuring Officer / Turnaround CEO engagements are typically fixed-term (12-36 months) ranging ₹5-15 crore total cost-to-company + success-fee-and-equity-and-resolution-completion-bonus architecture. Resolution-Professional / Lead-Insolvency-Professional engagements operate on CIRP-project-fee-plus-success-fee architecture ranging ₹1-8 crore per mandate.
Roles We Typically Place
Why Gladwin International Leadership Advisors for Credit & Special Situations
Head of Private Credit and Managing Director searches at global private-credit manager India operations.
Managing Director and Head of Alternatives Credit searches at Indian private-credit platforms.
Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director searches at Asset-Reconstruction-Companies.
Head of Special Situations and Head of Distressed Investing searches.
Head of Collections and Recovery / Head of Workout searches at private-credit platforms and NBFCs.
Resolution-Professional / Insolvency-Professional panel-leadership searches.
Portfolio-Company Chief Restructuring Officer (CRO) and Turnaround-CEO searches at stressed-asset-resolutions.
Organisations We Serve
Global private-credit manager India operations (Blackstone Credit, KKR Credit, Carlyle Credit, Apollo Global Management, Oaktree Capital, Ares Management, Cerberus Capital, Brookfield Credit, Varde Partners).
Indian private-credit and special-situations platforms (Kotak Special Situations Fund, Edelweiss Alternatives, ICICI Prudential AMC Alternatives, Piramal Alternatives, BPEA-EQT Credit, Nuvama Private Credit, Axis AMC Alternatives).
Asset-Reconstruction-Companies (Edelweiss ARC, JM Financial ARC, Phoenix ARC, ARCIL, Reliance ARC, Invent ARC, Prudent ARC, UV ARC, NARCL).
Stressed-asset-investment platforms and distressed-debt funds.
Bank-and-NBFC stressed-asset / workout / recovery teams.
Corporate-restructuring-and-turnaround platforms and Chief-Restructuring-Officer engagements.
Insolvency-Professional-Entities and Resolution-Professional firms.
IBC-resolution-applicant corporates and strategic-acquirers of stressed-assets.
Credit & Special Situations leaders assessed on the PE & VC “PRISM” framework
Seven dimensions calibrated for PE and VC portfolio company leadership. Dimensions are calibrated for credit & special situations mandates where relevant.
Parent Practice
Return to Private Equity & Venture Capital
Discuss a Credit & Special Situations Mandate
Confidential · No obligation
Response within 4 business hours · All enquiries handled by a senior practice partner · Strictly confidential