French multinational bank Societe Generale has increased its focus on the Indian consumer segment. The investment banking and research firm has announced two senior appointments with Nitin Mathur and Vivek Veda joining its Global Consumer Staples team. Based in India, they will both report to Warren Ackerman, Head of Global Staples research.

After the bank’s recent initiation of coverage for 12 US Staples companies, Mathur and Veda’s focus will be to further extend the team’s global footprint by adding coverage of emerging markets consumer staple stocks, the bank said in a statement.

Prior to joining Societe Generale, Mathur covered the Indian consumer sector at Espirito Santo Securities for three years. Prior to that he worked as a Research Analyst at Edelweiss and occupied a similar position for three years at Lehman Brothers and Nomura.

Vivek also joins from Espirito Santo Securities, where he worked as a Research Analyst focused on Indian consumer staples. Prior to that, he worked at Edelweiss after spending three years at HSBC covering mid-caps.