Italian acquisition paves road to new market

“Our priority markets are Germany, the Netherlands, which is our home market, and France” says Mr Ide. “Post the Antonveneta acquisition, Italy will be a major focus of ours.” The final act of this long saga, which saw the Dutch company in competition with Banca Popolare Italiana for the acquisition of Banca Antonveneta, took place at the beginning of January 2006.

ABN Amro AM acquired a majority stake in Antonveneta, following a purchase of shares from BPI, whose attempts to “defend” the Italian bank from the Dutch house ended up with the recent arrest of BPI’s CEO and led to the Banca d’Italia governor’s resignation.

ABN Amro AM’s marketing strategy in Europe and the presence it has on the ground is determined very much by the nature of the market itself. “In Germany there is much more of a multi-channel market opportunity. We have private banks, retail banks and IFAs,” explains Mr Ide. “In Spain, for example, the opportunity is much more focused around three or four key banks”. He adds that Banco Santander and BBVA are responsible for most of ABN’s Spanish distribution and sub-advisory business.

“We have our biggest sales force in Germany, because the market is more complicated, and in the Netherlands, although the Netherlands is a smaller market. But we don’t have local market people in Spain,” he says. “ In Italy we will be targeting both banks [and the banks’ specialised tied advisers known as] ‘promotori’. We have quite a good presence there already in the third-party market, mostly through funds, but we will have a much bigger presence. It is quite an exciting market”.