UK - Pioneer Investments has hired Morley Fund Management's Chris Yiannakou as consultant relations manager as it seeks to boost its institutional business.

He is to start next month at Pioneer's London office and report to Kerry Duffain, the head of consultant relations who was recruited from Citigroup last November.

Pioneer said in a statement that the hires are among a series that will be disclosed in the next few weeks.

"The hires are a continuation of a global project to build the internal structure necessary to fully target and support the institutional marketplace, both globally and in Europe," it said.

Pioneer Investments, which is part of UniCredito Italiano's Pioneer Global Asset Management, has over €142bn in assets under management.

A Morley spokeswoman told IPE that the firm was still "reviewing" the situation. Prior to Morley, Yiannakou worked at Gartmore Investment Management.

Last month Pioneer reported €4.8bn of inflows in the first half of 2005 and said that European institutional investors were responsible for over half of the inflows.

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