Shailendra Bhandari of HDFC Bank will succeed Ajay Srinivasan as managing director and chief executive officer of Prudential ICICI Asset Management Company. The appointment is awaiting the approval of the board of the AMC and coincides with the announcement yesterday of ICICI's insurance joint venture with Prudential Plc of UK.
Srinivasan is taking over as managing director, regional mutual funds, of Prudential Corporation Asia Ltd. A couple of asset management companies are known to be scouting for personnel to fill vacant slots and Alliance Capital Mutual Fund recently recruited Nikhil Johri as Ajai Kaul's successor.
Bhandari, a graduate from IIM Ahmedabad, started his career with Tata Administrative Services. He then moved to Citibank where he served for 12 years and headed the forex and investment banking operations and worked as managing director of Citicorp Securities. At HDFC Bank, his last job, he was heading the treasury and capital market operations and was part of the original team which set up the bank.
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Ajay Srinivasan, who set up the operations of ITC Threadneedle Asset Management Company prior to its merger with Zurich India AMC, was instrumental in establishing it as a leading player among the crop of new players in the domestic mutual fund industry with assets under management of Rs 4200 crore on March 31, 2000. As on date it has about Rs 4600 crore assets under management including ICICI Power and ICICI Premier.
Srinivasan said he would now be responsible for developing the Prudential group's asset management business in the Asia-Pacific region. "We hope to start fund management operations in Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia by the end of 2000. At present, Prudential group is present in 11 countries. By the end of next year, we hope to add another 8 countries," he added.