The investment company Deutscher Investment-Trust Gesellschaft für Wertpapieranlagen mbH (dit) and the Spezialfonds investment company dresdnerbank investment management Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH (dbi) will be merged to form a new fund company called Allianz Global Investors Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH end of December 2006.

With this organisational step and the new brand image, Allianz Global Investors is strengthening its position in fund business, particularly against the background of increasing convergence between mutual funds and institutional fund business. The newly formed unit, which covers fund business for the Allianz Group in Germany, currently manages 175.2 billion euros of which dit (including the units in Luxembourg and Ireland) accounts for 60.3 billion euros and dbi for 84.0 billion euros.

To this must be added the investments being managed by AGI Advisory, amounting to 19.2 billion euros; a further 11.7 billion euros are contributed by PIMCO Europe, which is also part of the group. Of the total assets under management, 82.1 billion euros are invested in Spezialfonds, 73.9 billion euros in mutual funds, and 19.2 billion euros in mandates.

The increasing convergence in the companies' business with institutional and retail customers is a crucial driver behind the amalgamation of dit and dbi. "With this step, we are responding to an already-incipient trend that will continue to accelerate in the years ahead; it is one that we have already been developing at our two companies for some time now, in the shape of our integrated business model. The reasons for an externally perceptible separation of these two lines of business are thus substantively and professionally no longer justified," says Markus Riess, who will function as Chairman of the Board of the new Allianz Global Investors.

In operative terms, dit and dbi have already converged - e.g. in terms of product development, sales back office and corporate servicves. The investment processes for mutual funds and Spezialfonds, he adds, are based on the same production platforms. "Our integrated business model of asset management for private investors and institutional customers under a single roof, already being proactively pursued, where both units jointly utilize a high proportion of our internal procedures, will now be manifested for the outside world as well," explains Riess.

For customers and sales partners, the following salient advantages will be manifest:
- less complexity, thanks to clearer and optimised structures in terms of contact persons, support and internal processes
- reduced brand complexity will free up more scope for investment, with concomitant benefits for customers
- a more consistent portfolio of products and services, able to transcend customer groupings
- more flexible transfer of specialized investment strategies for institutional customers into mutual funds

For the group itself, continues Riess, the equity structure will be optimized and its complexity significantly reduced. In this context, a new brand image will be developed, focusing on the global expertise and the global presence of Allianz Global Investors.

The newly formed company can call upon a network of more than 800 investment experts and a presence in all the world’s major financial centres and growth markets. The new brand is to be communicated at the beginning of 2007, with appropriate advertising initiatives. Institutional customers and sales partners are currently being directly informed.

For the approximately 1,400 employees of the Allianz Global Investors Group operating on the German market, nothing will change as a result of the integrated business model already being practised. "Cost-cutting targets have not been set, nor will there be any payroll downsizing. After all, we've done our homework on the cost side over the past couple of years," says Riess. Nor are there any changes planned in the reporting lines.

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