Mumbai, September 23, 2008 – ASK Group, a leading financial conglomerate and a pioneer in equity research and portfolio management services, which is celebrating its 25th year of operations, today announced the appointment of Mr. Amit Bhagat as the CEO of its proposed Real Estate Asset Management and Advisory business. The appointment is an important step in providing an impetus to the group’s plans in this strategically important initiative to further increase its product suite for its core HNI clientele.

Mr. Bhagat joins ASK from ICICI Home Finance where he was the Head of Property Services business.

Mr. Sunil Rohokale, Executive Director ASK Group who is overseeing the group’s real estate initiatives says on the appointment, “Amit with his widespread experience in the real estate business will play an important role in crystallizing the strategy and execution for the real estate asset management and advisory business of the group. His experience on the transaction side as well as advisory, including investment banking will be key assets in building this business, which will be one of the important growth engines for the group”.

Mr. Amit Bhagat, Chief Executive Officer, Real Estate business said, “The ASK group with its successful track record in research based portfolio management and wealth advisory is ideally placed to foray into the real estate funds and advisory business. I look forward to the opportunity to be a part of this strategically important endeavour of the group and enhance the group’s strong equity across the various customer segments."

Mr. Bhagat has spent over a decade in the mortgage business, out of which six years have been with ICICI Bank. Before moving into the real estate advisory and transaction business, he was the National Credit Manager for Mortgage division of ICICI Bank. At the time of joining ASK he was the Head of Property Services business, a division of ICICI Home Finance Co Ltd.

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