Investment Alliance

German insurer Allianz recently added three new investment funds to its portfolio of offers for the Polish market. Allianz Monetary (Pieniężny), Allianz Currency (Walutowy) and Allianz Active Allocation (Aktywnej Alokacji) are aimed mostly at companies, though company officials stress individual investors are also welcome.

The Allianz Monetary fund is intended mostly for short-term investments, while the Currency fund - based on securities denominated in American dollars or euro - is designed for those expecting the investment's rate of return to surpass a medium- to long-term bank deposit's value. The third fund is based on a portfolio of various bonds. Forty-five percent of its resources will go into bonds and shares and the rest into securities issued or guaranteed by the National Treasury or the National Bank of Poland, and is recommended for long-term investments.

"The new funds have taken off with their asset value set to zł.4 million each." Dorota Winczewska, Allianz Investment's sales director says. "They are open-type funds so we are not planning to shut them down after a certain period of time. We forecast that the [total] asset value of all [six] of our funds will reach zł.650 million at the end of the year."

The minimal level of contribution to open the fund's registry will be zł.200 for all three funds (or $50 or R50 in the case of the Currency fund.) Management's fees will vary from one percent (for the Monetary and Currency funds) to 3.75 percent (for the Allocation fund).

Allianz also plans to launch more new investment funds in Poland later in 2006. Currently the assets of Allianz Investment Company equal zł.395 million.