ITALY – UK fund management house, Gartmore, has moved into the Italian market with the opening of an office in Milan and the appointment of former ING Italian institutional chief, Nicola Meotti, as country manager.

Meotti will be responsible for developing Gartmore's business with Italian institutional investors, commercial banks, private bankers and other bancassurance distributors.

Marketing itself as a “high quality investment management boutique”, Gartmore says its focus in Italy will be to offer a selected range of products that will differentiate in investment style and risk return profile with the aim of adding value to clients' investments.

The offering will range from a selected number of actively managed mutual funds through to alternative investment products.
Gartmore will also offer customers investment management solutions in order to meet what it says is a growing need for diversification and quality amongst institutional investors.

Meotti joins Gartmore from ING Investment Management where he had been head of the institutional clients division since 1998, responsible for managing the institutional client sales unit, marketing, new product development, and sales to a target audience of Italian and international banks, brokers, insurance and fund companies.
Gartmore is now actively recruiting a team to support Meotti.

Patrick Van de Steen, Head of Gartmore Continental Europe retail, comments:
"This is an exciting time for Gartmore. We perceive a flight towards quality in many Continental European markets. This drives our expansion into Italy and we are delighted that Nicola Meotti will head this effort. Nicola's wealth of experience, gained from working for over 12 years in Milan, will be very valuable to Gartmore. We look forward to continuing to expand on the European business platform which we have established in Frankfurt and Stockholm by building up a successful Italian operation."


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