Amundi, one of Europe’s largest asset managers, has announced an expansion into Southeast Asia by opening a subsidiary in Thailand.

The Bangkok office builds on the manager’s presence in Asia, where it already has operations in Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore.

Amundi said it had become the first non-domestic manager to receive the appropriate mutual fund license in Thailand.

The French asset manager said its new base in Bangkok would help realise its ambitions for the South Asian market, which are focused on third-party distribution and partnering with sovereign agencies, pension funds and government institutions.

The Thai subsidiary will be headed up by Prapatpong Weeramon.

Pascal Blanque, head of institutional clients and CIO at Amundi, said the Bangkok office was a milestone in the company’s Asian expansion plans.

In other news, emerging market investment house Gemcorp has been launched officially as it announced inflows of $500m (€392m) from European institutional investors.

Headquartered in London, the company said it would focus on financials services, natural resources, infrastructure and sovereign sectors.

Gemcorp, founded by former Goldman Sachs partner and VTB Capital chief executive Atanas Bostandjiev, said it would originate deals focusing mainly on emerging markets, as well as providing investment advice to clients.

Bostandjiev said the firm saw a significant gap in providing solutions to institutional investors for emerging market exposure.