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The current joint managing director of the National Stock Exchange, Chitra Ramakrishna and ING Vysya Bank's managing director and chief executive officer Shailendra Bhandari, are front runners for the post of chairman of UTI Asset Management Company, sources in the industry and finance ministries, said.
UTI AMC is the fourth-largest mutual fund in the country with assets of Rs 69,100 crore ($15 billion) under management, making its chairman's post a coveted one.
The AMC has been headless since U K Sinha, its former chief, moved on to take charge of the Securities and Exchange Board of India in February.
Both Ramakrishna and Bhandari were shortlisted after they were suggested by a head hunting firm, Egon Zehnder, chosen to identify potential candidates for UTI AMC. Egon had interviewed of 30 candidates.
The decision to select a chairman vests with a search committee of three board members: Anita Ramchandran, Mumbai-based founder of HR firm Cerebrus Consultants; Prithvi Haldia, owner of Delhi-based Prime Data Base and a representative of T Rowe Price, the single largest shareholder of UTI AMC.
Shareholders will have the final say.
Intense lobbying for the post has, however, given rise to a controversy and delayed decision making.
TRP, which holds 26 per cent stake in the fund house, twice alleged the government was trying to influence appointment of the chairman.
It said decision making was being influenced to get Indian Administrative Services officer Jitesh Khosla, the brother of finance minister Pranab Mukherjee's personal advisor Omita Paul, as chairman.
Reportedly, Khosla was not shortlisted even after being interviewed by the search committee.
TRP first made this allegation in a letter to the finance ministry and later to other majority shareholders of UTI AMC,