AUSTRIA - German asset manager DekaBank is opening an office in Vienna targeting pension funds in Austria and Eastern Europe.

Harald Seisenbacher will join DekaBank from Austrian banking group Raiffeisen International, where he was responsible for the fund business in the group's CEE branches, to head up the new operation.

He will be supported by senior sales executive Paul Varga, previously at JPMorgan, Fortis and Montana.

DekaBank will initially offer a range of equity, bond and balanced funds to institutional clients.

However, the asset manager will, over time, seek to include real estate funds into the offering, while offering access to hedge fund investments could be a later option, a spokesman explained to IPE.
 
The asset manager hopes to use its Vienna office as a stepping stone into Eastern Europe, according to Oliver Behrens, a member of DekaBank's board

"Austrian banks were pioneers in establishing an excellent distribution network in the new EU member states," said Behrens.

Nearly all of DekaBank's over €140bn assets under management are currently from European institutional clients but only 5% are with pension funds as the majority of assets originate from banks.

DekaBank employs over 3,000 people in Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Ireland, Italy and Spain.

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