GERMANY - Activest has undertaken a revamp of its asset management activities, deciding to limit its competence to four main areas: asset allocation, absolute returns, disciplined equity and spread strategies with bonds.

The move follows plans to let go around 10% of the 80 fund managers it employs for both mutual and institutional funds, as IPE reported in November.

Activest says that while it would continue to offer a full range of funds to retail and institutional clients in Germany, investment mandates outside its four areas of competence would be passed on to other asset managers.

These, it said, included but was not limited to other asset managers within HVB, the German bank that is Activest’s parent.

Citing examples of such outsourcing, Activest said Capital Invest, HVB’s Austrian fund management arm, would manage money-market products denominated in US dollars, while Nordinvest, also part of HVB, would manage growth-oriented funds.

“By stringently restructuring and focusing on core competences we will realise significant gains in efficiency and quality,” remarked Andreas Fehrenbach, Activest’s new head of asset management.

Fehrenbach is taking over the reins from Bernd Logen, who is leaving Activest by the end of the year.

Fehrenbach will be joined on the new management team by Armin Lang, who has been put in charge of equity fund management and asset allocation as well as Jürgen Rauhaus, who is responsible for bond fund management.

Fehrenbach also expressed satisfaction with Activest’s peformance in 2004, saying that its mutual funds had attracted 500 million euros in net inflows and that the asset manager would double its profit vis à vis 2003.

For 2005, Fehrenbach said Activest expected a further increase in net inflows, noting that this had partly to do with increasing institutional investor demand for its mutual funds.

At the end of November, Activest had 37.1 billion euros in institutional assets under management, 34.8 billion of which was in Germany and 2.3 billion of which in Luxembourg.