Dresdner unveils plan for $50bn asset group

Dresdner Bank has announced ambitious plans to create a $50bn global asset management group for all its institutional funds outside Germany, writes John Willcock.

The group will unite the institutional side of Kleinwort Benson Investment Management in London, Thornton Group in London and Hong Kong, and RCM in San Francisco. It will employ 900 people world-wide.

Dresdner, Germany's second-largest bank, bought Kleinwort for pounds 1bn last year and has already concentrated its corporate finance and investment banking activities in London.

The new group will be headed up by RCM of San Francisco, an institutional fund manager which Dresdner bought last year.

Simon Robertson, Kleinwort's chief executive, stressed that London would not be weakened by this move.

"This is a big move for us. It will create a truly global asset management business. We hope it will give KBIM, which has not enjoyed as much success as we would have liked in the past, a fillip."