‘We want to be increasingly active in Portugal’ – Lazard Funds Managers
Lazard Fund Managers is soon to have a dedicated sales team in Portugal and has been increasing its fund offering.
Working in the Iberian market since 2015, Lazard Funds Managers should very soon have an exclusive sales team for Portugal.
“A very small player with some big clients”. This is how Domingo Torres, head of Lazard Fund Managers in the Iberian Peninsula, describes to ECO the presence of the Fund in Portugal. However, he says he cannot give the names, but they include a major insurance company, a large Spanish bank or a foundation.
Lazard has only €100 million under its responsibility in Portugal, in a market that between individual and collective portfolio management was worth €78.6 billion at the end of the first quarter, according to data from the Securities Market Commission (CMVM). Of the amount managed by Lazard in the country, around 75% belonged to institutional clients. In Spain, the volume already amounts to €900 million.
Domingo Torres is aiming for much higher figures in Portugal for the North American group. Lazard was founded in 1849 by three French brothers, which is present in 19 countries, employs over a thousand workers and has a total of $250 billion under management. It even had a partnership with IMGA to distribute funds, which ended a few years later. Now it works directly with institutional clients and distributes funds through Banco Best. And it should continue to do so.
“We want to be increasingly active in the country and probably next month I will add to our sales team someone dedicated to Portugal,” reveals the head, who before joining Lazard worked in Paris for Amundi, Caisse d’Epargne and BBVA. “We are growing more and more in Spain and it will be necessary to have someone to work the Portuguese market, which deserves it,” he adds. “I am confident that we will be hugely successful.”
Lazard Fund Managers combines Lazard Asset Management’s offering in New York with that of Lazard Frères Gestion in Paris. In Portugal, it has over 20 funds registered with the CMVM for commercialisation, including equity, debt securities, convertible bonds (one of its specialities) and multi-asset products, with more global solutions and others focused on Europe, the US and emerging markets.
