Allianz Global Investors, the €557bn asset manager, has announced the departure of its chief executive after almost four years in sole charge of the company. Andreas Utermann will step down from the role at the end of this year and be replaced by Tobias Pross, currently global head of distribution at AllianzGI and a member of the company’s global executive committee.

Mr Utermann’s departure will cap a momentous period for the asset manager, which has seen its asset pool increase by almost 100 per cent since 2012. The 53-year-old said he was stepping down to spend more time with his “still relatively young family”, citing the pressures of leading a global asset manager while raising three children. His departure will also be accompanied by a change in location for AllianzGI’s leadership.

While Mr Utermann was based in London, Mr Pross will continue to work from Munich, where the fund manager’s parent insurer, Allianz, has its headquarters. In the past year, several other asset managers, notably France’s Axa Investment Managers and Germany’s DWS, have replaced their prior London-based CEOs with executives located in the country of their parent company. Mr Utermann, who began his career as an equity portfolio manager at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, told the Financial Times that heading up AllianzGI was likely to be the final senior management job of his career. “I will not take another job like this one,” said Mr Utermann. “No one in the industry will remember in a few years whether I left now or in 2021.

But my oldest daughter will remember if I was around to take her to visit universities in the US and Canada, and support her with her GCSEs.” One of the fund industry’s most outspoken figures, the Brussels-born executive has been a vocal critic of Brexit, describing the politicians who campaigned to leave the EU, including his former schoolmate Boris Johnson, as making “empty and unrealistic promises”. Mr Utermann joined the group in 2002 and became co-head of the asset management business alongside Elizabeth Corley in 2012.

He took on the sole chief executive role in 2016. The dual British and German national said the timing of his departure did not suggest a bearishness about the future. “It has been a disappointing period, what with the euro crisis, the Brexit vote and the Trump administration in the US,” he said. “But I don’t think it’s going to get worse. I think it will improve.” Mr Utermann added: “Leaving AllianzGI will not be easy.

Having had the opportunity to work alongside so many talented and engaging people, to develop and lead a strong team and to build a respected global investment business, is a source of great pride.” Allianz board member Jackie Hunt said: “[Mr Utermann] hands over the leadership of the firm to individuals who are well placed to make the best of the options available to AllianzGI to continue to serve clients well in a period of change within the industry.” Deborah Zurkow, currently global head of alternatives, will take over Mr Utermann’s duties as global head of investments. Ms Zurkow will remain based in the UK capital.