MEAG has set itself the goal of further growing its business with institutional customers in the coming years. Its Institutional Customers unit currently manages four billion euros for investors from outside the Munich Re group – and that is just a start.

MEAG's outstanding expertise in systematically risk-controlled asset management is more in demand than ever on the investment market, and the Institutional Customers division, headed by MEAG Director Dr. Robert Helm, is determined to utilise this fact to continue expanding its customer base outside the group.

In order to do so, MEAG aims to sharpen its profile in the eyes of institutional investors, for example with its roadshows that Institutional Customers has been holding for five years now. Another tool is the "MEAG ManagerMeeting" – a highly successful series of events held in six cities. This year it was based on the theme of "Investing in 2009 – The year of paradigm change."

Again this year the ManagerMeeting covered a broad range of topics of particular relevance to institutional investors, with the aim of reaching as many potential customers as possible. In the macroeconomic presentation "Euro Break Up – phantasm or real danger?", for example, Dr. Jürgen Callies, head of MEAG Research, and macro researcher Dr. Anton Fischer voiced some very interesting, and often provocative, theories.

The "Performance Drivers – government guaranteed bonds versus covered bonds" presentation held by the MEAG Portfolio Management - Bonds department attracted a great deal of interest. In it, Andreas Grassl and his team clearly defined the respective advantages of these bond types.

Then, once the official programme was over, which had provided more than enough food for thought, the discussions continued on in a more sociable atmosphere at a "Flying Buffet". Everyone concurred that an insolvency or a withdrawal of members from the monetary union was improbable at this point. And the participants also agreed that the paradigm changes that had been presented would remain the drivers of the capital markets in 2009.

We are available for questions from institutional investors. You can find an overview of the contacts here.