By Mathieu Rosemain, Valentina Za and Harshita Meenaktshi
PARIS/MILAN (Reuters) -BNP Paribas on Tuesday said it would be open to an asset management partnership with UniCredit, amid reports the Italian bank was accelerating efforts to end its ties with French fund manager Amundi.
With a renewal of the distribution contract between UniCredit and Amundi long in doubt, BNP CEO Jean-Laurent Bonnafe said on Tuesday his bank would be open to developing an asset management partnership with UniCredit if the Amundi deal is not extended after mid-2027.
“Of course, we’re open to any kind of partnership with any kind of platforms… that would need high-quality assets, asset management,” Bonnafe told analysts in a call, when asked about BNP’s interest in pitching UniCredit.
BNP this year strengthened its asset management business by buying Axa Investment Managers.
UNICREDIT MOVES TO REBUILD IN-HOUSE CAPACITY
Under CEO Andrea Orcel, UniCredit has worked to rebuild in-house fund management capacity to boost fee income. Reuters was first to report in 2023 that UniCredit was trimming the proportion of Amundi funds it distributed to its clients.
Orcel has confirmed UniCredit had been replacing part of the Amundi funds it sold to its customers with funds repackaged in house that give it more fees, even incurring into the penalties envisaged by the distribution accord.
Under the deal, Amundi must account for roughly three quarters of UniCredit’s assets under management (AUMs) in Italy. The penalties get progressively higher as the proportion of Amundi funds on UniCredit’s total domestic AUMs falls.
Bloomberg reported on Tuesday UniCredit had stepped up efforts to sharply reduce sales of Amundi funds. UniCredit declined to comment.
AMUNDI SHARES FALL AFTER REPORTED CHANGE TO UNICREDIT POLICY
Amundi shares dropped nearly 9% following the report, before trimming losses to stand down 5.5% by 1630 GMT.
Bloomberg reported UniCredit wanted to reduce close to zero the amount of its clients’ money it invests through Amundi. Orcel had said in the past UniCredit would always retain some products from Europe’s biggest asset manager.
Relations between Amundi and UniCredit have been complicated by the role Amundi’s owner, France’s Credit Agricole, has played in aiding the successful defence of UniCredit’s takeover target Banco BPM.
Italy is the biggest foreign market for Amundi, which in 2017 spent 3.6 billion euros to buy the fund business of UniCredit. However, the renewal of the contract has been in doubt since Orcel arrived in 2021 and vowed to re-internalise more fee income. Amundi has been cutting staff in Italy.
An Amundi spokesperson declined to comment further and referred to comments the firm made earlier Tuesday when it said it remained committed to serving UniCredit’s clients and is open to continuing the partnership beyond 2027, though renewal terms have not yet been determined.
The UniCredit agreement covers 88 billion euros in Amundi’s assets, including 69 billion euros in Italy.
(Reporting by Harshita Meenaktshi in Bengaluru, Mathieu Rosemain in Paris and Valentina Za in Milan. Writing by Anousha Sakoui; Editing by Jan Harvey, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Conor Humphries)
