Following the sale of its wealth manager Scudder Investments to Deutsche Bank, Zurich has handed control of its Australian investment business to Deutsche Asset Management. Zurich’s Australia CEO John Butler sees plenty of upside in the arrangement, which makes the company a major Deutsche customer.

It gives Zurich access to a larger research team of 13 Australian equity analysts and more than 150 equity analysts globally, Mr Butler said. The main objective of the arrangement is to ensure continuity and projection of Zurich’s investment processes and strong performance track record.

 “We see Deutsche as one of our core strategic partners and we believe they have excellent competencies which compliment our products. The relationship is important to building upon the success of both businesses in Australia,” he said.

Mr Butler said increased research capacity will provide Zurich with access to coverage of small companies’ stocks in its Australian equities products. It will also give Zurich greater capacity to utilise more corporate securities in the company’s domestic and global fixed interest products.