CNBC–TV18 and OptiMix announces the winners of Financial Advisor Awards 2008

Media News

Mumbai, February 7, 2008

The booming Indian economy is pulling in young investors with an urge to explore different investment opportunities available in the market. In the current market scenario one needs to evaluate, understand and choose the right investment vehicles, which makes the role of the financial advisor extremely crucial. ‘CNBC-TV18 –OptiMix Financial Advisory Awards, 2008’ is an authoritative award that recognizes the potential of nation’s best financial advisors and felicitates them. The award ceremony took place in Mumbai and Mr C. S. Rao Chairman of Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority (IRDA) was the revered chief guest for the evening.

Commenting on this, Mr. Ajay Chacko, Director, TV18 Business Media said, “Although the Indian market is short-term and has higher turnover, advisor productivity is still low compared to global standards. The low penetration in the Indian market holds promise for improving the figure for productivity. The objectives of this award are to set benchmarks for the newer entrants and help the investors in selecting the best financial investment advisors across categories and of course, to recognize their critical role in the wealth creation process”

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Ashvin Arora – Managing Director of OptiMix said “The award is about wining but also about setting a benchmark, it’s about business but it is also about improving. The award has undergone an evolution, last year the number of entries received was 400 and this year we received a whooping number of 2700 entries”.

The process of selecting the award winners from a list of accomplished Financial Advisors was an extremely challenging task and was based on extensive research and analysis. The awards are an initiative to recognize the best in the industry that have the potential to raise the bar and set new benchmarks for newer entrants. ICRA Limited, India’s leading provider of investment information and credit rating services in India, and an Associate of Moody’s Investors Service, conduct the evaluation process.

Best Performing Financial Advisor in:

National Financial Advisor/Regional Financial Advisor Category

1.Equity Broker National-Kotak Securities Ltd

2.Banks (National)-Standard Chartered Bank

3.National Level Retail-IL& FS Investsmart Limited

4.National Level Institutional -IDBI Capital Market Services Pvt.Ltd

5.Regional Level FA (North)-Client Associates

6.Regional Level FA (South)-Wealthmax Enterprises Management Pvt Limited

7.Regional Level FA (East)-Eastern Financiers limited

8.Regional Level FA (West)-Networth Stock Broking Ltd

9.Individual Financial Advisor-East- Ruby Financial Services Pvt.Limited

10.Individual Financial Advisor North-Bluechip Capital Services Pvt. Limited

11.Individual Financial Advisor South-VI Value Invest Wealth Management Pvt. Limited

12.Individual Financial Advisor WEST-Wealth First Advisors Pvt. Limited, Brainpoint Investment Centre

13.National Level IFA- Wealth First Advisors Pvt. Limited

City Level Individual Financial Advisor

1.Bluechip Capital Services (P) Ltd- New Delhi

2.A M Consultant – Lucknow

3.Deep management & Eco. Consultants (P) Ltd.- Kanpur

4.Pramod Kanoongo- Jaipur

5.Profit Center-Chandigarh

6.Gupta Financial Services-Ludhiana

7.Wealth First Advisors (P) Limited- Mumbai

8.DSFS Advisory Services (P) Ltd – Ahmedabad

9.Suvidha Financial Consultants- Pune

10.Lemon Consultant –Surat

11.Invest Care-Baroda

12.Safe Investments & Financial Services- Indore

13.Think Financial & Insurance Consultants- Nagpur

14.Vi Value Wealth Management (P) Ltd- Chennai

15.Ultimate Investments- Bangalore

16.Finvest Advisory Services- Hyderabad

17.Trust Investments Services – Cochin

18.Sangam Financial Services- Coimbatore

19.Ruby Financial Services Pvt Ltd- Kolkata

20.United Securities – Jamshedpur

21.Plus Captial- Patna

22.Surplus Capital Market Pvt Ltd- Trivandrum

The winners of these defining awards are selected through a unique three –phase judging procedure, based on a combination of criteria’s.

The first stage is short-listing of India’s best financial advisors using quantitative techniques.

All entries are evaluated based on various parameters like Infrastructure, business performance, financial performance and scale, diversification and compliance.

The second stage involves ranking the top 20% entries in each category which are then subjected to customer feedback and qualitative filters after which they are re-ranked.

At the final stage the nominees are evaluated by an esteemed jury panel consisting of Mr. Ashwin Parekh-Ernst & Young, Khushroo Panthaky- Head Audit & Assurance Practice & also specializes in Insurance & Financial Services., Grant Thornton,  Mr.Subrata Ray-Senior Vice President-ICRA, Mr. Shailesh Haribhakti-Chairman, FPSB India, Mr. Srinivas Jain, CMO, SBI Mutual Funds, Mr.L.Shivakumar-Senior Vice President and Head -Western Region-ICRA, Mr. Sanjay Sachdev, Country Head, Shinsei India; Mr. Krishnamurthy Vijayan, Whole Time Director & CEO- J P Morgan Asset Management; Mr. Anjan Deb, Senior Vice-President, ICRA.

For further information please contact:

Hanmer & Partners Communications Pvt. Ltd.

Karishma Shah

Tel: +022 6752 4600