Amundi, the world’s ninth largest asset manager, has named “developing relationships with third party distributors” such as private banks as a key objective in its quest to grow in Asia, having just opened another subsidiary in the region.

The firm currently manages $70 billion worth of assets for Asian investors and aims to reach $100 billion within the next three to five years, it said at a press conference this week, celebrating its 30-year presence in Asia and the opening of a subsidiary in Taiwan.

Amundi, a merged business of Societe General (25 per cent) and Credit Agricole (75 per cent) asset management, has 3,000 institutional and third party distributor clients, including private banks. It named private banks as an “important development axis” in its Asia growth plans. It said it plans to register more funds with regulators and promote its flagships in the region to get third party distributors’ attention.

“We want to be one of the top 10 asset managers globally in Asia,” said the firm’s North Asia chief executive, Xiaofeng Zhong.

When this publication asked Yves Perrier, chief executive of Amundi, about its strategy for working with private banks in Asia, he said: “The key to succeed is to have good products, with good track records, and then the capacity to accompany this, from the commercial point of view, with a local sales force and some advertising to enforce the brand.”

He emphasised the importance of knowing individual Asian markets well in cultural terms, leading the firm to “always” hire local professionals to win over private banks and other clients. Annually, Perrier said Amundi will hire 100-150 people across Asia.

Taiwan

In Asia the firm runs three investment centres, operating in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore (and Kuala Lumpur). It has three further subsidiaries including the new Taiwan office, and a presence in Mainland China, India, Korea and Australia.

The Taiwan subsidiary opened in December 2012, following the issue of the Securities Investment Consulting Enterprise license by the Securities and Futures Bureau.

“Taiwan’s offshore fund market is booming. According to Lipper, Taiwan is ranked third among the bestselling market of offshore funds in 2010 and 2011. In view of this strong momentum, Amundi has decided to open a subsidiary in Taiwan,” said Nick Chiang, general manager of Amundi Taiwan.

“Taiwan’s target is to reinforce the relationship with our clients and to strengthen our presence among institutional investors and third party distributors in Taiwan,” he added.

Globally, Amundi has $1 trillion assets under management (as at January 2013) and claims to be one of the most profitable asset managers worldwide, recording  a cost-income ratio of 54 per cent in 2011.