Nitesh Estates inducts Brent, Aram on its Board

Two global industry leaders as new Independent Directors

Nitesh Estates, one of India’s leading integrated property development companies has announced that it will further strengthen its Board of Directors with the induction of two global industry leaders as new non-executive Directors. The new non-executive Directors are Mr. James Brent, the former global head of real estate and lodging at Citigroup Inc, and Mr. Ashok Aram, Managing Director of Abraaj Capital and former head of Global Banking, Deutsche Bank. This move is aimed to further strengthen its Board, build on its business success and further enhance Corporate Governance best practices within the company.

The company already has corporate luminaries on its Board like Mr. Subir Raha, former Chairman and Managing Director of ONGC, Mr. G. N. Bajpai, former Chairman of SEBI and LIC and Mr. Darius E Udwadia, Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England, Partner of Udwadia & Udeshi Solicitors and Advocates, one of India’s leading law firm. Also in its Board are two senior executives from Och-Ziff Capital Management Hong Kong Limited - Mr. Zoltan Varga, Head of Asian Merger Arbitrage and Event Driven Investing and Mr. Gabriel Fong, Head of Asia Special Investments and Mr. Mahesh Bhupati, India's first and only 10 times Grand Slam title winner and US Open mixed doubles title holder.

Announcing these appointments, a company spokesperson said, “Nitesh Estates strongly believes that corporate governance is central to its success and that high standards of corporate governance are is one of our fundamental differentiators to achieving our long-term strategic goals and meeting the needs of all stakeholders. The induction of these new Independent Directors who are global leaders in their respective field will bring in the best practices and fresh business perspectives from all around the world.”

He added, “This development is in line with our focus of strictly adhering to international standards of doing business. The additions to the Board bring added skills to facilitate an acceleration of our pace of development.  I am greatly encouraged by the calibre and experience of the people we have been able to attract.”

Mr. James Brent is the former global head of real estate banking at Citigroup Inc. He joined Schroders, a UK Merchant Bank in 1983 and became the youngest director at the age of 29. He then became the head of Schroder’s financing division and the non-executive chairman of Schroders Leasing Limited, one of Schroders’ two banking subsidiaries. In May 2000, the investment banking business of Schroders was acquired by Citigroup Inc. James became the Managing Director in Real Estate and Lodging investment banking business at Citigroup. In 2004, he became the co-head of the European region of the group, and the sole Global Head in 2005.

Mr. Ashok Aram is the MD of Abraaj Capital, one of the largest PE funds in the Middle East specializing in the MENASA region (Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia) which currently has US$4 billion under management. He was also the former head of Global Banking, Deutsche Bank.

About Nitesh Estates
Founded by entrepreneur Nitesh Shetty in the year 2002, Nitesh Estates is the real estate division of the Nitesh Group, headquartered in Bangalore, India. Since its inception, Nitesh Estates has created a niche for itself by pioneering some of the finest real estate projects in the country. The company has proven its capability to successfully take on challenging projects. Diverse projects bear the Nitesh name and this reflects the versatility of the company in handling its current projects as well as those of the future. Eight million square feet are currently under development and this is likely to increase to 20 million by the year 2014. Nitesh Estates is planning to expand operations to other cities like Goa, Chennai, and Kochi shortly among other places.