Bankers Trust Names Exec to Lead Global Expansion of Funds Business

business in an effort to stave off competitors and expand distribution of its investment products here and abroad. As part of the reorganization, the $103.9 billion-asset banking company last week picked Ian Martin, the head of funds management for the profitable Bankers Trust Australia unit, to oversee its global money management group. In a telephone interview from his office in Sydney, Mr. Martin said Bankers Trust was responding to market pressures that it broaden its investment product line to include more international options. "The bottom line is that we've been producing a lot of products, but now we have to optimize their delivery," Mr. Martin said. "We will be looking very closely at offering more of our international products in the U.S., and in the Japanese market from our Australian unit." Bankers Trust is the second-largest money manager in the country behind Fidelity Investments, with $168 billion of assets in the United States, and another $27 billion overseas. Half its U.S.-based assets are in passively managed portfolios that seek to match the performance of financial indexes. These accounts generate only a fraction of revenue that actively managed accounts do, leading some industry observers to suggest that the new leadership at Bankers Trust will press customers to adopt active investment strategies. But Robert G. Burke, a managing director for Bankers Trust in New York, disputed this assessment. "We're not walking away from" indexed investments, he said. "We make a nice margin on that business, because we have a large enough scale that we can deliver a good product efficiently." Carolyn S. Spitz, a senior consultant with the Spectrem Group, San Francisco, said Bankers Trust seems intent on extending its presence in international markets. "There are a lot of analysts who believe the growth of the mutual fund market in the U.S. has slowed and that the glory days are over," Ms. Spitz said. "The growth in the next 10 years is really abroad, and Bankers Trust probably sees that." As part of the move, Ivan Wheen, who had been in charge of Bankers Trust's money management business in the United States, will now chart the company's strategy in southeast Asia. Sources said Mr. Wheen is a former securities trader and a protege of Eugene Shanks, who resigned from Bankers Trust last month after being passed over for president amid turmoil over the company's derivatives sales practices. Frank Minard, now chairman and chief executive of PaineWebber Group Inc.'s Mitchell Hutchins Asset Management unit, will take over Mr. Wheen's position Jan. 1. Mr. Minard has worked for Oppenheimer Capital, and as an investment manager for American Telephone & Telegraph Co. Insiders have said his familiarity with the needs of corporate pension plan managers was precisely the reason he was chosen for the job. "Having the investment capabilities doesn't mean that you have the expertise to deliver it to the local markets," said one Bankers Trust executive, who asked for anonymity. "Minard brings a lot of experience to the table." Indeed, Mr. Minard's first order will be to smooth over relations with corporate clients that have been unnerved by the heavy fire the company has attracted lately.

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