ABN Amro Craigs is forming a new company called Craigs Investment Partners and would come into existence from August 31. Staff of Craigs' has bought 50% stake of a firm which was previously owned by ABN Amro.

Craigs Investment Partners which has been in the industry for 25 years is now a fully staff-owned business having 160 employees as the shareholders.

Craigs is the country's biggest retail investment advisory network. It has 17 branches, 110 advisers, more than 50,000 clients and has more than $4.5 billion under management and $11 billion under administration. It recently set up an institutional equities division to enter into the wholesale which was with ABN Amro in New Zealand.

The Institutional equities business shall be managed by James Miller, Geoff Zame shall head the institutional equity research and Craig Lindberg running institutional sales, Mike Caird shall head the debt capital markets and Guy Williams shall be running the investment banking division.

Managing Director Frank Aldridge is confident that its new 100% employee-owned company shall establish itself in the wholesale market. He said, "Our client focused philosophy has been key to our success to date, and it is extremely important that we extend this throughout our wholesale business, to which we are committed to delivering outstanding service."

The strategic alliance with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) shall enable the New Zealand business access to the international firm's global research and transaction network.