Think Allianz has money management on its mind? Earlier this year the German insurance power bought 70 percent of bond titan Pimco Advisors for $3.3 billion -- in the process, picking up Pimco-owned value equity manager Oppenheimer Capital. Allianz stumbled in April, when it tried to broker the merger of Germany’s biggest banks, Deutsche and Dresdner; the deal would have given Allianz control over part of Deutsche’s fund management arm. Last month the Munich-based giant was at it again -- shelling out $1.1 billion for Nicholas-Applegate Capital Management, a privately held, San Diegobased growth stock specialist. Nicholas-Applegate manages some $45 billion of mostly institutional money and had been on the block since spring. “The acquisition strengthens our position among the ten biggest global asset managers,” says Joachim Faber, who heads Allianz’s two-year-old asset management division. Just a few years ago, the insurer had virtually no money management presence -- to expand that business, it created a team that included Faber. When the latest deal closes, assets should reach about $662 billion worldwide. And Allianz is eager to leverage its new holdings to grow even more. Says Faber, “The know-how of Nicholas-Applegate will be channeled into the Allianz products as soon as possible.”
