Third Rome, the Moscow-headquartered investment management firm, has opened a new office in Zurich, which is to be overseen by Andrei Movchan, the firm’s founder and chief executive.

Third Rome is already authorised in Switzerland and is registered as a member of OAR-G, the Swiss self-regulated body for asset managers, the firm said in a statement. According to Swiss law, every company that plans to operate as an asset manager within the Alpine state’s local market has to be a member of one of 11 Swiss self-regulated bodies which are authorised by FINMA, the Swiss financial services watchdog.

In a recent interview with the Russian media, Movchan revealed that Third Rome currently has around $300 million of asset under management and intends to increase its asset base to $700 million by the end of the year. This figure is based on the fact that the firm attracts $2 million every day. Movchan further said that Third Rome hopes to attract $1.5 billion of assets by the end of 2011 – an ambitious target for a firm which launched only last May.