The Postbank Group is uniting its forces in the investment fund business: the two German investment trusts, Deutsche Postbank Privat Investment and Deutsche Postbank Invest, will be merged in the first quarter of 2001. With this move, Postbank is orienting itself on the continuing, above-average growth rate increases in the investment fund business, thus streamlining know-how into a single company and optimally utilising HR potential. The new Deutsche Postbank Privat Investment Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH will manage investment funds currently totalling Euro 8.7 billion. The company’s first joint product is the actively managed mixed investment fund “Postbank Global OptiMix”.

To date, the Postbank investment fund business was split into public funds and special funds. Postbank Privat Investment, founded in 1998, manages the accounts of 140,000 private customers and – with seven investment funds last year – was among the top ten German companies in terms of inflow of funds. Since 1996, Deutsche Postbank Invest has focussed – most recently with 20 special investment funds – on institutional investors. Postbank expects this merger, effective retroactively on December 31, 2000, to create synergies, particularly in the area of fund management, IT and the back office area.

The new company, headquartered in Bonn, has more than 80 employees. The CEOs are Birgit Eichhorn, Udo Hirschhäuser and Karl-Heinz Pfarrer (spokesman). The Postbank Invest CEO to date, Klaus-Dieter Fröhlich, is soon to assume a responsible post within the Postbank Group. In addition to Postbank Privat Investment, the Luxembourg-based investment company, Deutsche Postbank International S.A., will be maintained.