Declining to either take over or acquire a stake in an asset-management company, Barep sought a local partner with an emphasis on investment products.

"It was more profitable for us to join with the leader in the domestic market and share our expertise," said Bruno Leroy, head of sales and marketing of Barep Asset Management's Asia Pacific division.

Barep recently joined forces with Tisco Asset Management to launch the first-ever options-linked foreign investment fund in Thailand.

Besides derivatives-linked investment products, Leroy said Barep had several other alternative investment tools, including structured notes and arbitrage-linked funds. However, Securities and Exchange Commission regulations restrict such tools from being adapted to the Thai market yet.

Leroy said his company saw Asia as a very important market.

With the mutual-fund business in Thailand developing so quickly and local regulations gradually being relaxed, the company decided to expand its Asian presence from the previous focus on Hong Kong and Singapore.

Barep is owned by Societe Generale, the largest non-mutual retail-banking group in France by net banking income and numbers of branches. Barep is the fourth-largest bank-owned asset-management company in Europe.

It has US$410 billion (Bt15.5 trillion) in assets under management in 25 countries. $28 billion of these assets are in Asia.

Piyarat Setthasiriphaiboon

The Nation