Rothschild moves in on Italian third party trade

LCF Rothschild is setting up shop among Italy’s fund distributors. France’s LCF Rothschild Group has embarked on a drive to win business from Italian third-party fund distributors. So far the firm has E300m of funds under management, sourced from Italian banks and financial advisers. The firm has headhunted Philippe de Nouel, former country head of Axa Investment Managers, Rome, to lead the initiative. In his new role as head of the Italian office Mr de Nouel said he would be “100 per cent focused on third-party clients,” something he said many large institutions try, and fail to achieve. He is marketing LCF Rothschild’s Luxembourg fund range, concentrating on flagship European government bond and international equity funds, but the firm is also prepared to undertake segregated mandates. LCF Rothschild has only just started actively marketing, but it set up its Italian branch three years ago in order to research the market. The research concluded that direct marketing to individual investors should be avoided due to lack of brand recognition, but that LCF Rothschild should make the Italian market one of its highest priorities.