NETHERLANDS - Pieter van Daalen, formerly of Rotterdam based investment group Robeco, is to join Schroder Investment Management as managing director of the group’s Amsterdam office in July, as part of an expansion programme in the Dutch and Belgian institutional and retail markets.

Robert Noordhoek Hegt, head of Schroders’ European institutional business development team in London, says the appointment accompanies a significant upgrading of the Dutch operations both in terms of investment activities, but also legally, with the firm recently becoming an NV – the Dutch equivalent of a PLC.

The move heralds a widening of focus towards marketing to smaller and medium sized Dutch pension plans, which Hegt says reflects a sea change in the Dutch asset management scene.
“ This is very much a new appointment and we haven’t had such a heavyweight before.
“ Pieter’s responsibilities will include the whole business development, both institutional and retail in the Netherlands and in Belgium.
“ What makes the timing very interesting is that we see outsourcing accelerating.
“ The very large pension funds with maybe one or two exceptions are increasingly saying that they can no longer do this in-house.
“ When you talk about medium and smaller size pension funds, increasingly they are no longer extending their contracts with bundled servers, but instead looking for specialist providers. So on both sides there are great opportunities and the focus on expanding the team is to go after the medium and small pension funds also.”

Van Daalen’s first task, says Hegt, will be to build up a team on the institutional marketing and client servicing side of around six people.
“ Next year we will also be looking to build a retail presence in these markets.”

Schroders opened its Dutch office in 1995 and currently manages around e1.7bn for Dutch and Belgian clients of which the large part is pension fund money for large clients.
In the Belgian market the company already has a retail relationship with Bank Nagelmackers.
The firm also recently appointed former Shell pension fund chief Kees van Rees as chairman of the group’s supervisory board.

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