M and A
Amundi Completes Majority Share Stake Acquisition Of Kleinwort Benson Investors
The European asset management group has completed its acquisition of KBI, and the latter firm is to be rebranded.
A transaction in which Amundi Asset Management took at an 87.5
per cent stake in Dublin-based asset management boutique
Kleinwort Benson Investors has closed, the firms said yesterday.
KBI has been rebranded as KBI Global Investors to reflect the
increasingly international scope of its business.
The agreement involving Amundi, Oddo & Cie and KBI was announced
first on 23 May. As part of the arrangement, KBI’s key employees
will own 12.5 per cent of the business.
Regulatory approval for the deal, from the Central Bank of
Ireland, was granted on 28 July.
“Going forward our clients will see very little change as the
status quo has been protected, and with many of our key staff now
shareholders in the firm, our clients can expect to see renewed
continuity and even greater stability in the business. While the
name is important in many ways, our culture is also our brand,
and that is not going to change,” Sean Hawkshaw, KBI’s chief
executive, said in a statement.
KBI has offices in Boston and New York as well as Ireland. It
employs 62 people and has €7.6 billion ($8.53 billion) of assets
(as of 31 March), mainly in global equities. Clients are spread
between institutional, sub-advisory and third-party distributors.
North American clients account for 52 per cent of AuM, while
Ireland and UK account for 26 per cent, Continental Europe 14 per
cent and Asia 8 per cent. Last year, it logged net revenues of
€31 million and net income of €9 million.
In a separate deal in March this year, Societe Generale agreed a
share purchase agreement with Oddo & Cie to acquire all of
Kleinwort Benson and Kleinwort Benson Channel Islands Holdings,
BHF Kleinwort Benson Group's UK and Channel Islands wealth
management business.