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If you are a young fund manager who takes pride in your entrepreneurial approach, then Alain Grisay may be someone you want to talk to. More to the point, the chief executive of F&C Asset Management may be very keen to talk to you.

Yesterday Mr Grisay made clear that he was in the market to buy entrepreneurial businesses across Europe to bolt on to his FTSE 250 fund manager. He may have one acquisition, of the REIT property investor, under his belt and another, of C-Quadrat Investment in Austria, on the cards, but he is far from sated. “We will look at catalysts for growth through mergers,” he said yesterday, highlighting young and enthusiastic businesses with strong management teams that F&C would want to retain.

It was a further sign of renewed confidence at F&C, which not so long ago was scrubbed from the “buy” lists of investment consultants. Indeed, Mr Grisay notched up another milestone yesterday, limiting the annual outflow of institutional funds to £4.8 billion last year — the lowest since his business was created in its modern form with the 2004 merger with Isis Asset Management. In the wake of that deal, almost £11 billion of assets headed for the exit in 2006. Total assets under management at F&C now stand at £97.8 billion. An after-tax loss of £50.6 million last year was turned into profit of £18.5 million on roughly flat revenues of £225.1 million.

Mr Grisay was born in Belgium but, having been resident in Britain for 25 years, is a confirmed Anglophile. He is also entrenched in the City tradition, having worked as an investment banker at JP Morgan for 20 years in Britain and America before turning to fund management, joining F&C as a director in 2001. Married with two sons, he has a passion for classic sports cars. He races a 1931 Invicta.