The company has been given the go-ahead from the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission to open the office as a “sub-branch” of its Marbella office on the Costa del Sol.
The new office is located in the Golf del Sur region in southern Tenerife, and is therefore "ideally located to service" the island’s expat community, Blacktower general manager Robert Mancera said.
Named to head up the Tenerife office is Laura Mann, who relocated to the island some months ago, “having identified the business opportunities on the island”, Mancera added.
Prior to joining Blacktower, Mann had been a financial adviser with deVere Group, looking after clients in Spain. Previous roles included five years with RBS in the UK, the last two of which were as a business relationship manager, and five years as well with Banco Santander in Malaga, again as an adviser looking after a portfolio of clients.
In her new role at Blacktower, she reports to Ally Kerr, who is regional manager for Blacktower’s Costa del Sol operation.
Popular with tourists
Tenerife is a popular tourist destination, and with a population variously estimated at between 865,000 and 908,000 people, is said to be Spain’s most populous island. It is more than three times the size of the Isle of Man, with roughly ten times the Isle of Man’s population.
The new Tenerife office brings Blacktower’s office portfolio to eight – comprised of two offices in Spain, one each in Portugal, France and Italy and the company’s headquarters in Gibraltar. This, along with Blacktower in the UK – the company’s FSA-regulated business – brings the total number of financial advisers across all five countries to 30.
The Italian office, in Rome, was unveiled in March. At that time, managing director John Westwood said it represented part of a “broader corporate strategy of expanding into other EU countries”, and he indicated other offices in Italy were on the drawing board.
He told IA that Blacktower planned to hire as many as 10 additional advisers over the next 12 months, and as many as 30 over the next three years.
