Peter Voss, the US-based chief executive of Ixis Asset Management, is tightening his grip on the French-owned organisation. The firm's operating divisions are to be brought under the control of a holding company, Ixis Investor Services. Insiders say the move will amount to a reverse takeover by the US asset management companies acquired by CDC Ixis, the French bank, in 2000.

At the beginning of this month, the group dropped the CDC brand to become Ixis Asset Management. It announced that its institutional asset management arms in France, the US and Asia would become subsidiaries of Ixis Investor Services.