A Rotterdam-based investment team of four people representing InsingerGilissen, part of Luxembourg-based private bank Quintet, has transferred to Auréus, an independent Dutch asset manager that has been gaining scale through acquisitions and alliances in recent years.
The team, comprising Oscar Pijfers, Irma Slotboom, Geert-Jan Kleijweg and Koos Passchier, is understood to be unhappy about the internal cooperation within InsingerGilissen, a firm created in 2017 through a merger between the Amsterdam-based private banks Insinger de Beaufort and Theodoor Gilissen.
Quintet acquired InsingerGillissen in January 2020. The Dutch branch is one of several that the Luxembourg-based private bank holds in Europe, next to Puilaetco in Belgium and BrownShipley in the UK.
Rotterdam roots
InsingerGilissen’s Rotterdam team had started a search to see if there was another commercial party interested in setting up a new branch in the Rotterdam region. That party became Auréus, which was already active in the port city through the acquisition of Blauwtulp Family Office BV, but, according to its management, lacked roots in Rotterdam.
Oscar Pijfers, for example, has been active there since 2013, first for Theodoor Gilissen and then for the merged bank InsingerGilissen. Pijfers has a large and deeply rooted network in the region. For example, he has been a board member of the Vereniging Ondernemers Scheepvaartkwartier for over four years.
The contacts with Auréus were established through Irma Slotboom and Han Dieperink. The two have a shared professional past at private bank Schretlen & Co and Rabobank. Dieperink, currently chief investment strategist at Auréus, said he is very pleased with the arrival of the foursome. “You really have to be rooted in the local area, otherwise there is no point in establishing a branch.”
Departure regretted
In response to questions by Investment Officer, InsingerGilissen gave a brief written reaction: “We regret the departure of these colleagues. InsingerGilissen is a company with very talented staff and very satisfied clients. That also means that sometimes people go elsewhere. The departure of the four colleagues will not affect the quality of our services or our presence in Rotterdam.”
Auréus currently has an office in the Rotterdam Maastoren, but intends to stop renting it after 1 October. Ideally, the asset manager would like to open a new office in Delfshaven, where, according to Dieperink, “the entrepreneurial networks are active, and the advisors are close by and all know each other”. InsingerGilissen also has an office in Delfshaven/Scheepkwartier (photo).
This article originally appeared on InvestmentOfficer.nl.