Catella Property Oy incorporates its asset management services in a new company - Amplion Asset Management Oy - which will be a 100% owned subsidiary to Catella. Amplion provides asset management services in Finland, Russia and the Baltic countries. On the fast developing property markets in Russia and the Baltic countries, Amplion will focus especially on providing new investment opportunities with full asset management to foreign investors. "Amplion looks after all property related issues on behalf of investors lacking own resources on these markets", says Eero Syväniemi, newly appointed Managing Director of Amplion.
Amplion will further strengthen its resources in Russia, as the property market is one of the fastest growing segments of the Russian financial sector. An increasing number of investors look to the Russian property market for investment opportunities, attracted by its growth potential.
"Some investors, however, refrain from acting on Russian and the Baltic markets as they lack resources both to identify opportunities - and, if an investment is made - to look after it. Amplion's business concept is to act as an asset manager partner, offering full service to institutional foreign investors and investment companies" says Eero Syväniemi.
Amplion operates through highly experienced local teams, located at offices in Helsinki, Moscow and St Petersburg. Mr. Eero Syväniemi, previously head of the asset management operations of Catella Property Oy, has been appointed Managing Director of Amplion. In the Russian operations, the Moscow office is led by Mr. Alex Belenkiy, who has held several top positions in the Russian financial markets, most recently employed by one of the leading Russian investment bank. The St. Petersburg office is led by Mr. Mikko Söderlund, who has been working in Russia in major Finnish industrial companies during the last 14 years.
"Our operations will be characterized by high transparency and quality, combined with strong local market knowledge and efficiency. This enables us to identify unique investment opportunities for our clients, while limiting their risk. We expect that through Amplion we can assist foreign investors to invest some €2,0 billion in the Russian market within the next two-three years", says Eero Syväniemi.
"It is important to have a clearly defined distinction between large scale asset management and advisory business, i.e. Catella's core business. This is the main reason why we start a separate company for these operations. It will also increase credibility and transparency from a client's viewpoint", says Johan Ericsson, CEO of Catella Financial Advisory Group, in a comment.
Catella has provided asset management services in Finland for more than ten years. The business was expanded into the Baltic countries in 2005, when Catella and Evli Bank started cooperation in Evli's first property investment Fund (EPI Baltic 1), investing in real properties in the Baltic countries. The fund has an investment volume of 150 M. Catella's asset management business was expanded into the Russian markets with Evli's second fund, EPI Russia 1. The Russian fund was launched in June 2006 with an investment volume of €400 million. Overall, Catella has been active in Russia and the Baltic countries for the last seven-eight years.
The launch of Amplion will take place on Jan. 1, 2008.
Source: Catella
