PARIS (Reuters) -UniCredit accounts for roughly half of Amundi’s assets under management (AUM) in Italy, as the leading distributor for the French asset manager in its biggest foreign market, Amundi CEO Valérie Baud said.
KEY QUOTE
“The UniCredit networks … represent around 100 billion euros out of our more than 2,250 billion euros in outstanding (AUM) today,” Baudson said.
“We organised around 3,000 meetings with UniCredit group advisers … and we launched almost 30 funds for UniCredit in 2024 too. So that shows the extent of our relationship and, moreover, the customer satisfaction… (is) excellent.”
WHY IT MATTERS
The distribution accord between UniCredit and Amundi, which runs out in 2027, could become either a bargaining chip or a bone of contention, with Amundi’s parent company Credit Agricole set to play a key role in UniCredit’s takeover plans for Banco BPM.
Credit Agricole CEO Philippe Brassac said on Wednesday the French bank “would decide in a few weeks” whether to tender its BPM stake under the bid.
CONTEXT
Credit Agricole became a BPM investor in 2022 after a previous aborted takeover attempt by UniCredit and is now its biggest shareholder, with a near 20% stake.
The French bank is keen to protect its commercial partnerships in Italy, which include the UniCredit contract struck by Amundi in 2017, when it paid 3.6 billion euros to buy the Italian bank’s fund business.
BY THE NUMBERS
Amundi had 198 billion euros in AUM in Italy at the end of March, one fifth of its total in France and down from 208 billion euros at the end of 2024.
($1 = 0.8809 euros)
(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain; Writing by Valentina Za; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
