17 January 2020
•
Allianz Bank Financial Advisors, the Italian bank of Allianz Group, has signed a distribution agreement with Neuberger Berman to distribute some of its funds through the bank's insurance platforms in Italy.
Through the deal, Allianz Bank Financial Advisors has made available to Italian retail investors five funds that will be available on Allianz's Unit Linked Challenge Pro and Challenge Private platforms.
Among the funds available via Allianz's platforms, an investment portfolio called NB Liq Alternative Solution, which aims to deliver a positive return over a full market cycle by investing in a range of liquid alternative funds managed by Neuberger Berman. These include the newly-launched Neuberger Berman Absolute Alpha and Neuberger Berman Macro Opportunities FX funds, managed by Steve Eisman and Ugo Lancioni respectively.
Additionally Allianz Bank Financial Advisors has selected three Neuberger Berman long-only specialist asset class funds for both Darta Saving Life Assurance dac's platforms, Challenge Pro and Challenge Private: the XCLASSIC NB Corp Hybrid Bond, XCLASSIC NB Global RealEstate and XCLASSIC NB US Small Cap.
Marco Avanzo-Barbieri, head of NB Italy & Israel Client Group, said: "Given we are in a low yield yet volatile environment, the NB Liquid Alternative Solution aims to produce uncorrelated returns for investors using our best liquid alternatives ideas from across our global platform. Asset allocation will be dynamic according to market conditions.
"We are also happy to provide selected specialist asset class funds to Allianz Bank Financial Advisors' Clients as a complement to their core asset allocation. At Neuberger Berman our cross-asset global investment offering enables us to meet our Clients' needs in an efficient and effective way."
