A I M Distributors Inc. (AIM) expects to grow its offshore fund assets from roughly $500 million today by building its sales efforts in the Western Hemisphere. The fund company expects to add up to $1 billion a year in new assets from non-U.S. citizens in located in the Caribbean, Central America and South America.

"We are trying to increase our presence in the offshore market and we believe that there is a lot of opportunity in these markets once we build our efforts," an AIM spokesperson told the MutualFundWire.com. The company currently offers five offshore funds (the AIM Capital Funds).

As part of the build out AIM has tapped Lawrence A. Marino as regional vice president and Alexander Nuno as regional sales director. Both are new positions and both men will report to Stephen Bitteker, AIM's first vice president and director of offshore sales. Bitteker, in turn, reports to Mike Cemo, president of A I M Distributors, Inc.

Marino joins AIM after 13 years with Merrill Lynch's International Private Client group. He most recently served as vice president of the U.S. non-resident client marketing group where his responsibilities included providing marketing support for international products and services including offshore mutual funds, international equities and fixed-income securities, and private banking services. He also spent two years as an offshore fund product manager for Merrill Lynch.

Nuno comes to AIM from PaineWebber's international office in Houston, where he was vice president of the International Private Accounts group, specializing in equity and fixed-income trading both domestically and internationally. Prior to his tenure at PaineWebber, he spent two years as vice president of capital markets for Chase Securities in Houston, focusing on business development in Latin America.  

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