Six bond management professionals who left BNP Paribas Asset Management a few months ago will join the US asset management firm Neuberger Berman, NewsManagers has learnt.The team is led by Patrick Barbe, former chief investment officer for Euro Sovereign & Aggregate Fixed Income at BNP Paribas AM, who had been responsible for the management of about EUR49bn in assets. The other new recruits are the managers Yanick Lorat, Vito Cavaliere, Antonio Serpico and Sergeja Prala, and the quantitative manager Leang You Tran.These six professionals will be based in Paris, where Neuberger Berman has had a sales team since 2014, currently composed of three people (Charles Soullard, Eva Toledano and Roxange Ghislain). To manage assets from France, a team will be set up, but for now, Neuberger Berman does not wish to state the legal format, as talks are in progress with the regulator. “The Paris team will work from a French office, which will be an official affiliate regulated by the European Union,” a spokesperson for the asset management firm says.However, several bond management funds and strategies will be launched in the next few months.With this recruitment, Neuberger Berman adds to its bond platform, which already represents USD133bn in assets as of 30 July 2018, out of a total of USD299bn (31 March 2018), and which has over 160 investment professionals, with 42 based in Europe. This will also allow it to build its presence in Europe.Although it was difficult to see, this movement is not a complete surprise. In December 2017, Dik van Lomwel, director for EMEA and Latin America at Neuberger Berman, told NewsManagers that the firm was “open if we come across an investment team in France or Germany.”“As we hold discussions with the team, the complementarity became clear. Their competences and areas of expertise are complementary with our existing European bond management, and this recruitment will allow us to strengthen and further improve our offerings for this key asset class,” a spokesperson for Neuberger Berman says.