GERMANY - Activest, Germany’s fifth-largest provider of institutional funds, has confirmed plans to let go around 10% of the 80 fund managers it employs for both mutual and institutional funds.

A spokesman for Activest told IPE that the job cuts were part of a shake-up of its funds platform and not related to business fortunes. The shake-up would allow Activest to “concentrate more on our core competences and on growth opportunities”.

The spokesman added that Activest was currently in talks with its fund managers to agree how the job cuts could be best achieved.

Only a few Activest funds are seeing considerable investor inflows. According to German news reports, Activest’s Total Return fund is attracting no less than half of all inflows, bringing its total volume to almost 2.9 billion euros.

The job cuts follow a third-quarter loss of 21 million euros at the German operations of parent HVB, which is Germany’s second-largest bank.

Following the results, HVB chief executive Dieter Rampl said the bank would further cut costs, though he did not specify by how much. According to German press reports, HVB aims to save an additional 300 million euros, most of which is to be realised in Germany.

However, the Activest spokesman stressed that the revamp “has nothing to do what Rampl is planning to do at HVB”.

As of the end of September, Activest had 33.9 billion euros in institutional assets under management, making it fifth in Germany according to this measure.

In a related development, German press reports said that Capital Invest, HVB’s Austrian fund management arm, planned to cut 10 fund manager jobs as well.

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