Still the sector of managed savings is the protagonist of the big financial structures. After the takeover bid of Banco Bpm on Anima, and the move of Unicredit on Banco Bpm, both seen with the aim of recovering from the savings management (by Anima) what the banks will lose with the fall in ECB rates, now the hand passes to Amundi. The largest European asset manager, controlled by Crédit Agricole, is interested in acquiring Allianz Global Investor (Agi), a company savings management of the German insurance company Allianz, as reported Bloomberg,
From the union of the two groups a hub with over 2.500 billion euros of assets under management, thanks to the sum of the more than 2.000 billion euros of assets of Amundi and the 555 billion of Agi. The discussions between the French group and the Germans have been ongoing for several months between periods of pause and recovery, the American agency reports.
Two operations are included in the possible structure: on the one hand a complete acquisition by Amundi, on the other a significant stake of Allianz in the post-merger group. According to what was reported to the American agency by sources familiar with the dossier, there is the possibility that a agreement be announced before the year-end results, February, although, given the complexity of the operation, there is no certainty that an agreement will be reached.
The intricate wave of operations in search of managed savings
The talks between Amundi, which manages more than 2 trillion euros in assets, and Allianz Global Investors, whose assets amount to 555 billion euros, come in the midst of a wave of operations in the Old Continent: Bnp Paribas has announced the acquisition of Axa Asset Management, Generali is evaluating a partnership with Natixis while Banco Bpm has announced a takeover bid for Anima, a plan that Unicredit has jumped on with an exchange offer for the bank led by Giuseppe Castagna.
As is known, Castagna's opposition to Orcel's action pushed the latter to think of hooking up talks with Crédit Agricol itselfand: a meeting in Paris is in fact scheduled, even if it has been postponed a few days towards Christmas. It is now a matter of seeing on what basis the situation can develop. Unicredit has time until March to evaluate the opportunity of improve the conditions of the Ops on Banco Bpm, said the CEO Andrea Orcell yesterday during a video call with investors organized by BofA, according to media reports. Meanwhile, the Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani he declared on “Porta a Porta” that he believes that the conditions for applying the “golden power” to a possible UniCredit-Banco operation, adding that the Council of Ministers would decide in any case.
Its Amundi has just announced that it holds a stake in'1,3% in Unicredit on behalf of its clients. Amundi also has a fund management agreement with UniCredit until 2027, having bought Pioneer, the Italian bank's fund division, in 2017. At the time, Italy had sought to keep Pioneer in Italian hands, but Amundi had outbid a consortium of domestic investors.
There is another interesting intersection in this banking game: the strategic partnership between Anima and the Montepaschi di Siena, which is one of its main customers: it represents 16% of the retail masses of Anima and with which the group has a contract until 2030. bpm just purchased from mef the 5% of Mps and Anima rose to 9%: the idea was to create that famous third banking hub, so desired by some members of the government.
