Following an internal reorganisation, all of Fidelity International’s Benelux sales offices are now supported from Luxembourg, which has been given a “hub” function within the US asset manager’s organisation.
This is confirmed by Sanela Kevric, who has been head of the Benelux region since 2022. She said she is supported by two experienced sales directors based in Brussels and Amsterdam, and by a marketing team and sales support. The Benelux remains one of Fidelity’s strategic markets, she said.
“All commercial entities, including the Netherlands, benefit from the services provided from other locations,” Kevric said. “As such, the team benefits from the expertise and efficiency of our broader European sales team.”
One of the consequences has been that in the Netherlands, Jaap Schlette and Oscar Geldof, who were respectively country manager and head of institutional sales for the Netherlands, have ceased working for the US asset manager since this summer.
‘Dedicated teams at European level’
“As part of our 2030 strategy, we have established dedicated teams at European level to support the development of our expertise in ETFs or private wealth to serve our clients in all markets, in collaboration with our local sales teams. This is a significant enhancement to our service model, with asset class specialists working hand-in-hand with our on-site teams. We believe this service model will help respond to our clients› needs and support our growth ambitions,” Kevric said.
Asked whether Fidelity still provides institutional services specifically for the Netherlands, Kevric says that they no longer distinguish between wholesale and institutional sales and services and that experts for relevant topics are flown in from elsewhere.
In recent years, Fidelity has built up a real estate team in the Netherlands to be close to local opportunities. “This is indeed a special feature of our Amsterdam office,” Kevric said. For instance, Roeland Schippers and Matthijs Schriek were recruited for the latter segment in January.
According to Exelerating, a platform for institutional investors, Fidelity International currently serves a number of institutional parties in the Netherlands.
This article originally appeared in Dutch on InvestmentOfficer.nl.