8 Robeco special WHAT'S NewS Issue 12 December 1996 orientation, and even though Robeco has made significant inroads into the French, Swiss and Luxembourg private investor markets, the Group's business has always been run from a Dutch perspective. Yet, while Groupe Robeco France's Gilbert Flardy agrees that the Dutch image is important, most of the products his team offers - primarily through direct marketing - have been designed with the specific needs of this domestic market in mind. While the focus here is on Robeco's autonomy, both RI and the asset manager are looking for synergies and forms of cooperation between the two organizations. Stefan Richter, manager of Luxembourg, is already in far-adeanced negotiations to move in with Rabobank Luxembourg when thieir new premises are completed. The two houses will also be looking at warys to combine activities, specifically in the back office. MARKET SHARE 'At the present time,' says Hardy, 'we derive only 20 percent of our income from Robeco funds. The remaining 80 percent is generated by purely French products developed for the French market, including life insurance and pension plans. Robeco funds have been listed on the Paris stock exchange for many years so we are well known in France. Our income split is around 50/50 private and institutional investors representing around FF 10 billion in assets under management.' Life insurance is a relatively new offering for the French operation, but in the three years since this ROBECO IN BRIEF The Rotterdam-based fund manager that markets itself as 'the largest independent investment house in Europe'owes it start to the worst financial disaster in recorded history.The idea of Robeco was conceived in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash in 1929. Five extremely wealthy Rotterdam families, most of whom had made their fortunes through the port, got together in 1933.They put part of their net wealth into the new fund and appointed an independent asset manager to look after it, because, they reasoned, working on the advice of banks had cost them dear. The investment manger did so well for the Robeco group that four years later, the fund was opened to other investors and soon became a public fund. Robeco remained a single public fund for 30-plus years. It was then that funds, such as Rolenco, were added. As Robeco grew, a holding company structure was perceived as the right form of management for its increasing number of funds.This led to the creation of Robecam. Essentially, Robeco was structured along cooperative lines. However,that would change in the 1980s as the asset manager increasingly saw a need for growth. If a solid return on investment but little more had characterized the funds previously, since the arrival of new president and CEO Pieter Korteweg in 1986, the group turned its attention to seriously growing its business - both domestic and international. Robeco under Korteweg went through staggering growth in the late 1980s, but from 1990 increasing competition has made it ever-tougher for the independent asset house to pursue its ambitions. Clearly, this is where Rabobank comes into the equation. A heavy-duty,Triple-A rated parent will bring in the capitalization Robeco needs to further develop its international expansion. product was launched, Groupe Robeco has seen its market share grow strongly. 'That is correct,' Flardy confirms. 'We are looking at around FF1.2 billion since the launch, with 50 percent of that figure achieved this year. Many of our life clients are also personal asset clients. They are used to our direct marketing techniques and, of course, we have put a very good product in the market.' BANKING AT A DISTANCE Across the border in Switzerland - and in Luxembourg, which is a subsidiary of the Geneva-based Robeco Bank - general manager Winfried Kilp and his team are also putting basic Robeco concepts to INVESTMENT BREAKDOWN (IN NLG, 5/96) equity funds 19.2 billion bond funds 17.4 billion money-market products 14.3 billion mixed funds 1.1 billion property funds 12.6 billion institutional funds 3 billion ;.j—s total managed for institutional market 24 billion total under management group 75 billion work. 'We have based our service to private clients across Europe and elsewhere in the world on the shareholder account system which I'm sure Willem van 8 Someren Gréve has explained. That is our primary activity both in Switzerland and in Luxembourg. One of our strengths is that we can offer sound investment and portfolio advice to clients, who tend to be ex-patriates, through IRIS (see page 9) and our advisory service. The cliënt decides how he or she wants assets allocated or we are assigned an asset management mandate. We also offer a focused range of products - the cliënt is not continually bombarded with a new product or a new bond every day. They can choose from a comparatively basic type of product HIGH TECH MARKETING De marketing technieken die Robeco gebruikt om haar producten aan de man te brengen zijn zeer succesvol gebleken. Robeco benut direct marketing en moderne verkooptechnieken om de klanten te bereiken. Als eerste introduceerde men aandeelhoudersrekeningen, die de klant de mogelijk bieden een bepaald bedrag te beleggen in plaats dat zij verplicht worden een aantal volledig^^ aandelen te kopen. Hierdoor staat er nooit geld renteloos op de rekening. Robeco blijft alert ten aanzien van innovaties. De mogelijkheden die Internet biedt zijn al opgemerkt.

Rabobank Bronnenarchief

blad 'What's news' (EN) | 1996 | | pagina 8