Ambitious crack at Europe

Roxane McMeeken writes on the Sal Oppenheim-Prumerica deal for a large-scale entry into the European retail mutual funds market. German private bank Sal Oppenheim has enlisted American expertise in order to crack the retail mutual funds markets of Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. To accomplish this ambitious plan, the firm has formed a joint venture with New Jersey, US, based Prudential Financial. The move sees Prudential, or Prumerica as it is known in Continental Europe, take a 50 per cent stake in Sal Oppenheim. The two companies will collaborate in creating, packaging and distributing a family of mutual funds. The products will be sold in Germany through Sal Oppenheim’s existing channels and in the other countries through Prudential’s network. The joint venture will be branded Oppenheim Prumerica. Stephen Pelletier, president of Prudential’s international capital group, said the deal was “an opportunity to make large scale entry into a strategically important market”. Sal Oppenheim was chosen based on its “high quality management, substantial distribution and full product range”, as well as the fact it was “long established, well known and highly regarded”.