Fortis Investments, the Benelux fund manager, is hoping to capitalise on the fast growing $15 billion Russian mutual fund market through its...

Fortis Investments, the Benelux fund manager, is hoping to capitalise on the fast growing $15 billion Russian mutual fund market through its new alliance with local player CIT Finance Asset Management Company. The new company, CIT Fortis Investment Management, will offer Russian and international investors products in Russia and Commonwealth of Independent States markets. State Street Global Advisors, a US institutional fund manager, last year ended its seven-year partnership with local manager Pallada Asset Management. Vadim Barausov, a spokesman for CIT in St Petersburg, said CIT Fortis would prosper where State Street and Pallada had failed. Speaking to WealthBriefing, he said: "State Street and Pallada came at it from a different angle but we are not starting from scratch. We have a leader in Russian fund management and an European company with experience of setting up successful joint ventures elsewhere." Fortis' Chinese joint venture, Shanghai-based Fortis Haitong, is now the largest international player in its market. Fortis Investments and CIT Finance will own equal shares in the joint venture and will co-manage the company. It will have offices in Moscow and St Petersburg and will employ 55 people with 20 additional staff in the coming months. CIT Finance already manages $500 million in mutual fund assets through a range of long-only, fund of funds, alternative and structured products. It also has non-state pension funds, insurance companies and high net worth individuals as clients. Mr Barausov said there was a growing demand from HNWs for Asian equities, which the joint venture would tap into.