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Robeco is in the process of setting up a dedicated sales team in preparation for entering the listed fund market this year.

The Dutch fund has a vacancy for a sales manager for ETFs in the United Kingdom. This manager will be based in London and plans to hire another five sales specialists in continental Europe in early 2025.

According to the job posting, the UK sales manager will be responsible for “promoting the firm’s ETF products to UK clients, creating awareness of this new opportunity and driving sales”.

“Launching our ETF capability in 2024 is a strategic priority for Robeco and we are building a dedicated team to deliver on this ambition,” the job posting reads.

This article was previously published by Ignites Europe, a title of the FT Group.

The targeted hires come as more active managers enter the ETF market in Europe, driven by expected increases in demand.

This follows the appointment of Nick King as head of ETFs last year, who joined from Fidelity International, and Dorcas Phillips, who was recently appointed head of ETF Capital Markets, also based in London.

“In terms of resources, we deliver this using the expertise and resources we have within the organisation, but we also recognise that it is important to supplement this with specialist skills and experience where required,” King said.

“We believe that with this approach we can ensure scalability and embed this additional delivery tool into the organization’s operations,” he added.

He said Robeco would hire “a small number of sales specialists in the European markets” to work alongside existing sales teams.

“We are currently recruiting in the UK market, with additional recruitment in mainland Europe planned for early 2025.”

The €179 billion asset manager said it would involve four to five salespeople, with exact locations yet to be determined.

Last year, Robeco said ETFs had been under consideration for some time due to “their growing popularity and versatility in the investment landscape”.

The asset manager’s new ETF platform covers a wide range of asset classes, including equities, bonds and multi-asset.

Speaking at this year’s FundForum conference in June, Robeco CEO Karin van Baardwijk said the manager was entering the active ETF market in Europe to “protect” itself against a potential drop in demand for investment funds.

“We think it’s a really good idea to add an additional proposition that we have from an investment fund perspective, with active ETFs. It’s also an opportunity for us to tap into a different type of customer.

“We see it as a very good vehicle to bring our investment IP to the market,” she added at the time.

Van Baardwijk said the decision to enter the ETF market was made after “a lot of thought” about how to build the infrastructure and “finding the right people” to “help navigate the landscape which is very different” to what the firm currently does.

She said clients would benefit from “directness, transparency and liquidity” with active ETFs and rejected suggestions that they could harm Robeco’s active fund management business.

A number of asset managers are entering the active ETF market in Europe following their huge growth in the US.

Funds have launched 35 active ETFs in the past 12 months, more than double the number the year before, although inflows remain modest.

*Ignites Europe is a news service published by FT Specialist for professionals working in the asset management industry. Trials and subscriptions are available at igniteseurope.com.