GERMANY - Crédit Suisse Asset Management says Philipp Vorndran is to take over from Hansjörg Herzog as chief executive of its German arm.

Herzog becomes head of sales and marketing at CSAM Switzerland.

The firm said Vorndran would succeed Herzog from March 1. The 43-year-old Vorndran has spent eight years at CSAM and was named director of European investment strategies in Zurich in October 2004. Prior to that, he was director of global strategies.

A spokeswoman said Herzog was stepping down as German CEO "because he received a very attractive offer from CSAM in Zurich to become head of sales and marketing".

She noted that as part of his new responsibilities, Herzog would be in charge of distribution for Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Under Herzog’s leadership, CSAM’s German arm has become one of the leading foreign providers of German institutional funds. Following an interview with Herzog last autumn, IPE reported that CSAM Germany had €4.2bn in institutional assets under management.

It aims to raise that figure to €5.5bn by the end of 2006, partly by winning more mandates from German companies to create contractural trust agreements (CTAs). Under a CTA, pensions liabilities in the form of book reserves are removed from a company’s balance sheet and consolidated into a fund backed up by cash.

CSAM’s German arm will unveil its results for 2004 at a news conference on March 7.