SWITZERLAND – Assets under management at Harcourt Investment Consulting, the Swiss fund of hedge funds business that is ultimately majority owned by ABP and PGGM, have risen by 65% in the first nine months.

Zurich-based Harcourt saw its assets under management grow in the first nine months to 1.8 billion euros, said majority shareholder NIB Capital, the merchant banking business co-owned by the two Dutch schemes.

In August Harcourt said that it and Cominvest Asset Management were planning to launch a fund of hedge funds in the second half of the year. Harcourt has branch offices in Stockholm, New York and Barbados.

It has also emerged that NIB set up a division called NIBC Wealth Management in September with 10 staff, focusing on “discretionary asset management, mainly for wealthy individuals”.

The Hague-based NIB reported that net profit in the first nine months rose 83% to 117 million euros from 64 million a year before. Total assets under management rose 57% to 3.1 billion euros.

“During the first nine months of 2004 NIB Capital has realised higher results in all Strategic Business Units,” said managing board chairman Michael Enthoven.

“The growth of client-based revenues and the increasing diversification of revenues result in a further improvement in the quality of our income. This is also reflected in our growing pipeline of transactions and mandates.”

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