Tokio Marine ties up with UK firm on foreign stocks

TOKYO, April 17 (Reuters) - Tokio Marine Asset Management has selected British fund manager Threadneedle to jointly market foreign stock products to cash-rich Japanese institutions including pension funds, a Tokio Marine official said on Friday.

The wholly owned asset management arm of Japan's top property and casualty insurer Tokio Marine Holdings (8766.T) has 4.4-4.5 trillion yen ($44-45.28 billion) in assets under mangement.

The tie-up with Threadneedle, one of Britain's biggest fund mangers and a unit of Ameriprise Financial (AMP.N), will enable them to provide better foreign stock services to investors, said Kenji Kodama, head of corporate strategy at Tokio Marine Asset.

Tokio Marine, which hold about 150 billion yen in foreign stocks, will retain its own existing platform, he said.

Tokio Marine formed a joint venture company with British manager Rogge Global Partners Plc in foreign bonds in 2003. The venture has offered foreign bond instruments mainly to Japanese pension funds, and the value of such assets it has under management is about 1 trillion yen, Kodama said. ($1=99.37 yen) (Reporting by Chikafumi Hodo; Editing by Michael Watson)