Michael Surowiecki

PIMCO Europe Ltd. (PIMCO-Europe) is the Great Britain-based subsidiary of PIMCO Global Advisors LLC, ultimately held by Allianz SE (FR: ALV; ADR: AZSEY) in Germany. Established in 1997, PIMCO-Europe is headquartered in London with additional branches in Europe and global offices in Asia, Australia, and the Americas. The firm provides fixed-income investment management services to clients in Great Britain, Europe and the Middle East. In addition to corporate pension funds, their clientele includes foundations, endowments, public retirement plans, central banks and corporate treasury departments. They also serve retail and high-net worth individuals. PIMCO Europe manages discretionary accounts, institutional funds and mutual funds. The firm is involved in the institutional wholesale business, and sub-advises portfolios for third-party fund-of-fund managers.

BNP Paribas Fortis SA/NV (UK) (BNP Paribas Fortis UK) is the Great Britain-based subsidiary of BNP Paribas Fortis SA/NV, itself a subsidiary of BNP Paribas SA (XP: BNP) in France. Formerly known as Fortis Bank SA/NV (UK), the firm was established in 1988 as a brokerage firm. In 2009 Fortis Bank began to use the name BNP Paribas Fortis as a commercial name and in 2013 they changed the official company name to BNP Paribas Fortis. Headquartered in London, BNP Paribas Fortis UK provides brokerage services for central banks worldwide and primarily focuses on precious and base metals including gold, silver, platinum, palladium, aluminum, copper, lead, nickel, tin and zinc. They outsource research activities to Virtual Metals Research & Consulting Ltd.