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National Industries Group Holding Co. successfully implements Wealth Management System

Kuwait City; 22 November 2009: National Industries Group Holding Co. (KSE: NIND - " NIG ") has recently completed the successful implementation of PM1e Wealth Management System to manage its international investment portfolio across the different asset classes. Mr. Saad Al Saad, the Group's Chairman stated, "Our decision to continue investing in information systems during a time of global financial crisis has paid off well. The PM1e system, with its powerful analytic tools, robust reports and risk measures helped us stave off major erosion in asset values over the past 18 months. Successful implementation of the system is another step in preparing ourselves to seize opportunities when markets emerge out of the current crisis. Our investment team together with the support of Expersoft Systems and Protiviti Member Firm (Middle East) Ltd. have done a commendable job."

Ms. Hetaf Khajah, Executive Manager of International Investments Division said "We had an internally developed system to manage our investments. However, the system did not keep pace with our growing financial needs as well as the dynamic nature of global investment instruments and the often changing business processes. We quickly realized that we needed one solution that is readily available to meet the majority of our requirements. We appointed Protiviti as our consultants to conduct a requirements study and find a suitable system / vendor. After rigorous analysis of all available solutions, (local, regional and international) we selected Expersoft's PM1e portfolio management system. We were very pleased with our consultant's work at the during the selection phase and decided to appoint them to assist us in the system implementation project."

Ms. Khajah added, "Expersoft complemented their system with an experienced team for the implementation phase. Protiviti provided project management assistance offering key insights in investments performance analysis and ensured knowledge transfer to our team. All these factors contributed to the successful implementation and migration to the new platform; what we have today is a system that is powerful, dynamic and robust, providing performance and risk management reports on the fly. What used to take us days, or sometimes even weeks, for generating certain key reports, now takes just about two minutes."

Mr. Mubasher Sheikh, Group Financial Controller, remarked "Considering the successful adoption of the system by our International Investments team in managing the portfolio of diverse asset classes, we extended the system to manage the Group's direct investments in subsidiaries and associates. In future, we intend to extend the system to cover our local investments and treasury operations, and thereafter integrate it with our financial accounting system."

Mr. Vedat Tuzun, Project Manager at Expersoft Systems Middle East, remarked "The Middle East is a key focus area for Expersoft and we are delighted to have NIG as a client successfully deploying PM1e. Expersoft is looking forward to a long term business relationship with the Group providing value added service and extension to the system to cover NIG 's other divisions and subsidiaries' requirements. The project included some region specific developments for PM1e product family and strengthened position in Kuwait and the Middle East".

Mr. Senthilkumar, Regional Managing Director - Protiviti Member Firm (Middle East) Limited, remarked " NIG Management's commitment throughout the project was critical to the success of this project. We are happy to add this project to our growing list of success stories in the Banking and Financial Services space. With our expertise in this space and recent expansion in the Middle East region we are now better positioned to assist GCC banks, asset management companies and investment bankers in managing their challenges."

National Industries Group Holding Co (www. nig.com.kw) is a holding company and has investments across various industry sectors and asset classes including real estate, oil and gas, financial services, building materials, etc. NIG 's total assets as of 31 December 2008 were 1.7 billion KD ($6 billion).

Expersoft Systems AG (www.expersoft.com) provides leading-edge software solutions and services for private and retail banks, family offices, asset managers, brokers and other financial service providers. Expersoft is a Switzerland based company and has offices in Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific.

Protiviti Member Firm (Middle East) Ltd. is the member firm of Protiviti, Inc. (www.protiviti.com) for the Middle East Region. Protiviti, Inc. is a global consulting and internal audit firm composed of experts specializing in risk and advisory services. Protiviti, Inc. is a subsidiary of Robert Half International, a $4.7 billion NYSE listed company.
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© Press Release 2009

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