Dublin-based asset management group Kleinwort Benson Investors (KBI) made an operating profit of €2.5 million last year, up from €200,000 in 2012.

This emerged yesterday from results for its parent group RHJ International and resulted from significant client wins. KBI’s assets under management rose last year by 49 per cent to €5.4 billion. This is almost double the level managed by the Irish business at the end of 2011.

Net fees
The results show that KBI's net interest income was flat at €200,000 last year but its net fee and commission income rose to €15.1 million from €11.5 million. Other income declined to €300,000 from €800,000 in 2012.

Its operating expenses increased by 7.4 per cent to €13.1 million.

The rise in assets under management follows a number of new business wins, including a strongly contested public tender for a mandate worth more than €650 million from Fonds de Compensation (FDC).

FDC runs the assets of the general pension insurance scheme for Luxembourg, which has a total fund of €13 billion. This is thought to be one of the largest global equity mandates awarded in Europe in recent years by public tender.

Public tender
KBI also won a public tender mandate from the French Fonds de Reserve pour les Retraites, a large European public pension fund with about €37 billion in assets.

KBI’s contract is to manage a “blended thematic environmental equity portfolio” of around €75 million. This is believed to be the largest tender for an environmental investment mandate in Europe.

The funds are invested in KBI’s portfolio of specialist environmental strategies, including water, renewable energy and agri-business.