Aktia expands its special know-how of emerging markets to the international market

Press Release
Aktia Bank plc
4.4.2018 at 14:30

Aktia has made a cooperation agreement with the German company Universal-Investment. With the cooperation Aktia’s special know-how about sovereign debt in developing economies will expand to the international market. The assets under management of the funds that are managed by Universal-Investment, ”UI-Aktia EM Frontier Bond+” and "UI - Aktia EM Local Currency Bond+”, already amount to over 270 million euros.

As a result of persistent  and persevering work Aktia is Finland's leading asset manager investing into government bonds in developing economies. The fixed income fund family that has been built by Aktia Asset Management since 2006 consists of four funds, three of which invest into the emerging markets in local currencies. The assets under management in this asset class were over 2 billion euros on 22.3.2018.

Successful products and a talented team of portfolio managers have given rise to a demand also abroad. Aktia has made a cooperation agreement with the German company Universal-Investment GmbH. Universal-Investment is the largest independent investment service provider in the German speaking Europe. The company’s assets under management are approximately 340 billion euros and consist of over a thousand private label funds and mandates.

With the cooperation Aktia's key expertise is available also to European institutional investors. Universal-Investment acts as the management company for the funds and distribute the funds through their own sales organisation to institutional investors in the German speaking Europe. The first fund ”UI-Aktia EM Frontier Bond+” was launched on 16.11.2017 and the second fund ”UI - Aktia EM Local Currency Bond+” on 5.3.2018.  The assets under management of the funds are 273 million euros (22.3.2018) in total.

The Asset Management service is a key part of Aktia’s new strategy which was published in the autumn of 2017. "We have now started to expand abroad our activities, which for several years have received recognition in Finland. This is a significant strategic step for Aktia and going forward we will in addition to Finland and the Nordic countries see Central Europe as an important target market to our successful Asset Management services”, says Anssi Rantala, Deputy Managing Director of Aktia Bank. Rantala is in charge of the Asset Management services within Aktia’s Executive Committee.

In comparison to international competitors Aktia has always had a clearly different approach to investing in sovereign debt in the developing economies. "Our relatively small size enables us to enter rather exotic markets where comprehensive special know-how is needed. Due to their size large global asset managers have no possibilities to carry out investment activities on the markets in question. A significant part of our investments are in countries outside of the reference index. We also have a large variety of different instruments in our use”, says Jetro Siekkinen, Deputy Managing Director of Aktia Asset Management and in charge of asset management of customer assets.

As recognition of a broad and high-quality selection of fixed income funds Morningstar awarded Aktia in March for the fourth year with the prize Best Fund House, Fixed Income.  

Further information:
Anssi Rantala, Deputy Managing Director, Aktia Bank Plc, tel. 010 247 6381
Jetro Siekkinen, Deputy Managing Director, Aktia Asset Management Ltd, tel. 010 247 6564

From:
Henna Tuominen, Director, Communications, tel. +010 247 6456

Aktia provides a broad range of solutions within banking, asset management, insurance and real estate agency. Aktia operates mainly in coastal areas and inland growth areas. Aktia has about 380,000 customers who are served at branch offices and via web, mobile interfaces as well as telephone services. Aktia's shares (AKTAV, AKTRV) are listed on the list of Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd. For more information about Aktia see www.aktia.com.