ABN Amro to boost Asian assets to $20b

ABN Amro to boost Asian assets to $20b

HONG KONG (Dow Jones): ABN Amro Asset Management has announced plans to triple assets under management sourced from Asia from US$7.5 billion to $20 billion by 2005.

Its strategy: expanding into new countries, offering more products, and hiring more staff.

Japan, and also Taiwan and South Korea, are markets where Frank Kusse, chief executive for Asia Pacific, sees the most potential for growth. In June, ABN Amro bought a majority stake of Taiwanese fund-management group Kwang Hua to increase its sales in that market; it is currently looking for a partnership in Korea.

"It is difficult to find reputable players to work with," says Kusse. "We really want to apply western standards - the question is if you can do that in Korea." ABN Amro is in serious talks with one Korean asset manager, he said.

In China, ABN Amro has applied for representative office status, which Kusse hopes will come through by March or April.

The company also is in talks with a mainland fund management company on an advisory agreement, and hopes it will come through by the end of the month. Sealing an advisory agreement paves the way to a joint venture, which would be allowed once China joins the World Trade Organization.

One of the new products ABN Amro hopes to launch in Asia is a behavioral finance fund with a Japanese focus. Behavioral finance fund managers make investment decisions based on what they anticipate other investors will do; ABN Amro currently offers a European-oriented behavioral finance fund.

Certain types of behavior, such as panic selling or buying, "bring a lot of opportunities to the market," says Solange Rouschop, Hong Kong-based head of structured asset management and product development for the group.

In addition, the group wants to raise the number of investment professionals around the region. In Hong Kong, for example, the goal is to increase the investment staff to 16 from 11.