Skandia’s Intech acquisition a way to differentiate itself

Ross Laidlaw

Skandia has revealed part of the motivation for its recent acquisition of Intech stemmed from a desire to differentiate itself in what it perceives as an ever increasing commoditised financial services industry.

Chief executive of Skandia Ross Laidlaw said: “Clearly the opportunity to look at the Intech acquisition was an area we were already working on in terms of our multi-manager research and we see that as an important way for us to continue to differentiate our service going forward.”

He added Intech’s asset management capability was also viewed by his organisation as an attractive characteristic.

“In terms of the Intech business they had the implemented consulting and the Intech investment trust so they had a much more efficient way of delivering asset management capability and we saw this as a very important piece,” he explained.

In mapping out the coming 12 to 24 months for Skandia, Laidlaw said the result of increased scale from the acquisition was already evident.

“Last year I would have said our goal was $10 billion [in funds under management] by 2010. The acquisition has moved us up to where we can really be aiming for a target of $20 billion size by 2008,” he said.

In terms of a broader strategic direction Laidlaw revealed Skandia wanted to become a preferred platform by 2010.

“We’re probably already in the top four for non-aligned platforms but we want to continue to be a preferred platform to the IFA [independent financial advisory] market. Through joining forces with Intech we want to also be a leading provider of multi-manager products,” he said.