(Bloomberg) -- Europe’s largest asset manager wants to grab a bigger slice of the UK’s £1.3 trillion ($1.6 trillion) wealth and financial advice market. 

Amundi SA intends to build out a marketing team based in the country in a bid to push more of its funds to wealthy individuals across the UK, according to people familiar with the matter. The 2 trillion-euro ($2.1 trillion) money manager currently only has a centralized marketing team based in Paris, with only a few UK-based individuals.

The French asset manager has had a presence in the country since 1999 but has struggled to take significant market share, failing where other European and US shops have succeeded. The firm currently has just over 200 employees based in the UK and £47 billion of assets under management, a small fraction of its total assets.

That is something Amundi, which is majority-owned by Credit Agricole SA, wants to change, the people said, asking not to be identified because the plans are private.

Following its acquisition of Lyxor late last year, which made it the biggest provider of exchange-traded funds in Europe, the firm shook up its UK distribution team, handing top sales job to former Lyxor executives, including its UK chief executive David Lake, who are well known in the country’s wealth market.

It wants to make its brand more visible and to persuade more wealth managers to place its passive and active funds into their clients’ portfolios, said the people. The plans aren’t yet finalized and a decision will likely be made in coming months, one of the people said. 

A spokesperson for the firm declined to comment. 

Senior management are also considering launching some UK-domiciled funds, to create products that will be more popular with UK financial advisers, the people said. Though the plans are still at a preliminary stage and might not materialize, they indicate a change of approach to Britain.

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