Waiting to see how it goes the offer on Commerzbank, with the additional period ending on July 3, Unicredit focuses on managed savings.
The bank led by Andrea Orcel has accelerated the downsizing of the partnership with Amundi, which began with the sale of the Pioneer division to the French group and continued for a decade. Since 2016, Amundi has managed a large portion of UniCredit's customer savings: approximately 80% in 2021.
UniCredit: Amundi's assets under management fall to €75 billion.
Today, the assets attributable to Amundi in Unicredit's managed assets have fallen to approximately 75 billion euros at the end of the first quarter, almost half compared to 2024, writes Mf. And it may not end there, given that according to the newspaper, the descent should continue until reaching 20 billion by mid-2027, when the agreement between the two parties expires.
A "rift" between Unicredit and Amundi, controlled by Crédit Agricole, had first been rumored last July, after the withdrawal of the offer launched by Piazza Gae Aulenti for Banco BPM, with persistent rumors that Orcel had not appreciated the moves of the French, who had increased their stake in Banco BPM to 20% while the takeover bid for the Milanese bank was still underway.
Since then, a lot of water has passed under the bridge and while Banque Verte is aiming for 29,9% of Piazza Meda and the market awaits a possible new move by Unicredit on the institute led by Giuseppe Castagna, on managed savings Orcel has reportedly decided not to sign further exclusive partnerships but to focus on internal development Through the Onemarkets platform and in-house developed products, with the aim of increasing control over the value chain and margins. The expansion of the offering with several series of certificates structured on MSCI thematic indices and the launch of seven ETFs listed on the Milan and Frankfurt stock exchanges is also moving in this direction. Unicredit also acquired Alkimis SGR, a small Milanese boutique specializing in absolute return strategies.
Unicredit: Countdown to Commerzbank
Meantime The countdown to the conclusion of the Commerzbank offer has begun.Friday, July 3rd, will also end the additional period, during which those who did not participate in the first phase could, if they wished, hand over their shares. The shares will be published a few days later, on July 8th.
The market's eyes are on institutional investors, from Bofa to Morgan Stanley, from Citi to Nomura, waiting to understand whether they have joined the takeover bid or not. "According to our information – he Orcel anticipated, speaking at the Mediobanca CEO conference "Among institutional investors, excluding passive ones, only five have not joined. All the others have joined or sold," he said. the manager also listing the next times and steps On the offer: considering that Germany has different rules than Italy, "which force you to do the transaction and then apply for authorizations," he specified, "it will take three to six months after July 9th to obtain approval from the ECB, the Brussels antitrust authority, and the approval of other regulatory bodies, such as Poland, France, the United States, and others. So, until then, we won't have control because the shares aren't formally ours. If you ask me now, it's much more likely that we'll get what the ECB would call control."
