Interview with Tommaso Corcos CEO of di Eurizon

Börsen-Zeitung, Germany’s most important daily financial newspaper, has published a long interview with Eurizon’s CEO, Tommaso Corcos. The main points covered are summarised below. In the first three quarters of 2019, Eurizon achieved positive net investment growth, total assets on the rise by 7.7% and consolidated net profits of 344 million. The results prove that “many investors have returned: they were in wait and monitoring market trends, as the political and economic situation was difficult in several European countries”. This despite an accommodative monetary policy that has curbed bond yields. Therefore, “Eurizon has been focusing on investment in shares with high and stable dividends, and on spread bond markets, such as the emerging markets, as well as on positive-interest-rate currencies. For what concerns business presence abroad, the market Eurizon is betting on is China, where it holds assets worth 81 billion. “We have a joint venture there, Penghua, with a 49% shareholding and total assets of 81 billion. China is effectively our second most important market after Italy”, Corcos says. He also explains that Eurizon entered China in 2009, accelerated its growth there in 2014 and in 2018 created a fund for Chinese bonds in local currency, which is now worth an impressive 900 million euros. Other important markets outside Italy are France, Germany, Eastern Europe and the United Kingdom, totalling 90 billion euros. “The key to growth in these territories is being able offer competitive products”. Asked if Eurizon has a well-defined objective in terms of growth outside Italy, Corcos mentions China again, a country that is growing at a strong pace. “For what concerns the other markets, it depends whether you mean only organic growth, or through acquisitions as well. I would be happy if we achieved 10% growth over the next three years”, the Eurizon CEO says. He then talks about new projects in the pipeline, in particular the joint-venture with the insurance world focused on the real asset segment, due to be launched in December: “We then want to invest also in infrastructure projects offering higher return for institutional clients. Our insurance partner will be the Insurance division of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group, for product strategies on illiquid asset classes”. Also mentioned in the interview are the partnership with Oval Money, sustainable projects with dedicated funds, and PIR (personal savings plans) regulations.
 
“Im interview: Tommaso Corcos, Eurizon” - Börsen-Zeitung, 19 November 2019