Japanese fund manager Nikko Asset Management has taken on Clive Paine as UK business development director to bolster its European sales team.

Mr Paine will be part of the Nikko AM EMEA sales team based in London and will be responsible for developing relationships with UK clients.  Previously he worked at Jupiter Asset Management as a institutional sales director and at Franklin Templeton Investments and holds 25 years of experience in the industry.

He will be reporting to Ian Lewis, head of EMEA sales.

Nikko AM has been increasing the products it offers across Europe, which has included such moves as augmenting its UCITS platform.  Nikko sees the UK as a key market as alone it represents assets under management of £7.7 trillion.

Nikko AM is one of Asia’s largest asset managers and has $216 billion in assets under management.