Mumbai, August 4, 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. Sameer Kamdar as CEO of its proposed Asset Management company. The appointment comes in the wake of the group’s aggressive plans to launch an asset management business to further increase its product suite for its core HNI clientele as well as new customer segments in the domestic and overseas markets.

Mr. Kamdar comes to ASK from Mata Securities where he was the Country Head for the Mutual Funds distribution business. He is attributed with having brought the concept of corporate distribution of mutual funds to the forefront in India.

Mr. Asit Koticha, Chairman and promoter of the ASK group will be the Chairman of the AMC. Says, Mr. Koticha, on the appointment, “Sameer with his successful track record in the mutual funds distribution industry and experience in understanding customers’ investment needs and financial planning will play a significant role in building our Group’s asset management business which will be one of the important growth engines for us”.

Mr. Sameer Kamdar, Chief Executive Officer, Asset Management said, “The ASK group with its successful track record in research based portfolio management and wealth advisory is ideally placed to foray into asset management. I look forward to the opportunity to be a part of this strategically important endeavour of the group and lead a talented team in further building and enhancing the group’s strong equity franchise across the various customer segments."

Mr. Bharat Shah, CEO & Managing Partner, ASK Investment Managers that runs the group’s portfolio management services business, shall take the additional responsibility as Vice Chairman of the AMC. Mr. Shah brings with him nearly two decades of varied experience in the Indian capital markets. Prior to joining the ASK group, Mr. Shah was the Chief Investment Officer at Birla Sun Life AMC for over nine years, and was responsible for managing equity/fixed-income assets of over $ 1.65 billion, among the largest mutual funds then.

Says Mr. Shah, “Our core strength is research and managing assets. Asset management business in India is at an initial threshold of a long-term, exciting growth. We see a great future in this business. Sameer is expected to provide a major fillip to fulfill this opportunity.”

Mr. Kamdar comes with a decade’s experience of mutual fund distribution and is well regarded in the distribution and asset management community. He has represented the distribution fraternity in the round table discussions on the mutual fund industry. He was invited by the US government to study the US Insurance & Pension fund business covering all top insurance companies and asset managers in the US. His previous company has won several fund industry awards under his leadership.

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