UniCredit may bring foreign investment funds

Pioneer Asset Management (former CA IB) could start distributing investment funds managed by the parent company, Pioneer Investments in January 2007, if Romania joins the European Union on January 1, 2007.
Pioneer Asset Management is UniCredit’s investment manager. Investments in mutual funds have greatly increased over the past year, following the decline in banking interests.
“We will most likely distribute products managed by the parent company, as Pioneer Investments does this on the markets where it is present,” said Florin Dolea, chief executive of Pioneer Asset Management.
“At present, distribution of foreign investment funds on the Romanian market is very hard to do because of CNVM (National Securities Commission) regulations, but once in the EU, the market will become free for all foreign investment funds,” Dolea specified.
Pioneer Asset Management does not intend to launch new funds for now, with the company’s efforts being directed towards integrating its operations with those of the group resulted from the merger of UniCredit with HVB Bank and Banca Tiriac.
“We will focus on synchronising our operations with those of group in the upcoming period and will analyse the opportunity to launch new products considering the expertise the parent company provides,” Dolea said.
Pioneer Investments, which was established in 1928, is one of the oldest asset investment managers in the world. It became part of the Italian UniCredito group in 2000. It operates investment centres in Boston, Dublin and Singapore and manages assets worth over 147 billion euros.
Pioneer Asset Management is currently managing four mutual funds, Premio, Integro, Europa Obligatiuni and Stabilo. Equity fund Premio posted the highest yield in July, with an increase of more than 15%. The value of the assets of the four funds revolves around 11.5 million euros, according to the latest data on the company’s website.