Mr Ajay Sambrani has been appointed as the new Country Head, India at Sandvik Asia, the Indian subsidiary of the US$ 13 billion Sandvik Group. Ajay will assume office in his new role from October 1, 2011. He was earlier appointed as President, Sandvik Materials Technology at Sandvik Asia in January this year.

Ajay will also be part of the new extended Group Executive Management at Sandvik Group, set up for the first time as the company ushers in restructuring of global operations to strengthen market leadership. The only other member of the new extended Group Executive Management will be from the company's China operations, a strong indicator of the growing importance of the Indian and Chinese operations at Sandvik. This is also for the first time that an Indian executive has been included in the company's Executive Management.

Mr Ajay Sambrani, commenting on the new development said, "Going forward India plays an important role for Sandvik strategy for emerging markets. We have a great opportunity to grow in this country and leverage the competence and strength we have built over the last 50 years."

As part of new strategic direction at Sandvik, the company will have five business areas instead of the current three business areas effective January 01, 2012. Sandvik has decided to relocate the official Group headquarters to a new office in Stockholm from where the Group Executive Management will operate.

The five business areas will be: Sandvik Mining; Sandvik Machining Solutions; Sandvik Materials Technology; Sandvik Construction; and Sandvik Venture

Mr Olof Faxander, Sandvik Group's President and CEO said: "Sandvik has a strong offering and a market leading position in many fast-growing and developing markets as well as in more mature markets. We need to strengthen this position and also improve in some areas to be world class in all our businesses. Sandvik will always have ambitious targets but there also has to be strong commitment to reaching these targets. We need to act as one company and make sure that we allocate resources and capital to the businesses where we get the best return."

The purpose of the new strategy is to achieve world-class performance in value creation through higher growth and profitability and thereby make Sandvik an even more attractive company for its customers, employees and shareholders. To succeed with the new strategic direction and to increase transparency and operational focus the organization will be split in five Business Areas instead of three and a stronger platform for utilizing common resources will be developed.

Sandvik's Mining division focuses on global leadership on products, solutions and services for high-performing hard rock and soft rock underground and surface mining operations and will be located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Machining Solutions focuses on offering productivity by enhancing products and solutions for advanced industrial metal cutting and will remain located in Sandviken, Sweden. Materials Technology offers high value-added advanced metal products for demanding applications in selected places and will remain located in Sandviken, Sweden. Construction services offer high-performing products, solutions and services within selected niches of the global construction industry and will be relocated to Stockholm, Sweden, with a satellite in Shanghai, China. Lastly, Sandvik's Venture focuses on Product Areas with limited connections to other Business Areas or closely linked to several other Business Areas and will be located in Stockholm, Sweden.

The Sandvik Group is a global high technology enterprise with 47,000 employees in 130 countries. Sandvik's operations are concentrated on three core businesses: Sandvik Tooling, Sandvik Mining and Construction and Sandvik Materials Technology - areas in which the group holds leading global positions in selected niches.

(Rajita Kumar, Sandvik India. Mobile: 099604-61061. Email: rajita.kumar@sandvik.com)