BNP Paribas Investment Partners and Chilean bank BancoEstado have agreed to form an asset management partnership in Chile, which will result in BNPP IP owning just under half of BancoEstado’s asset management subsidiary.

Under the agreement, subject to regulatory approval, BNPP IP will buy a 49.99 per cent stake in BancoEstado Administradora General de Fondos (BEAGF). Simultaneously, BEAGF will enter into a 20-year exclusive distribution agreement with BancoEstado.

The strategic partnership is intended to capitalise on BancoEstado’s asset management presence in Chile, where the firm’s assets under management stand at $787 million, in combination with BNPP  IP’s sales force in Latin America.

In the Latin American market, BNPP IP already holds more than $16 billion in assets under management through its subsidiaries in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.

Mr Gilles Glicenstein, chairman and chief executive of BNPP IP, said: “ We have together high expectations as the Chilean market is one of the most promising in the Latin American region and in the world, and it is getting more and more sophisticated.”

As part of the BNP Paribas group, BNPP IP is a multi-specialist asset management firm which offers access to a number of international partner companies. 

BNPP IP serves clients in 70 countries, and had approximately $411.5 billion in management and advisory assets at the end of the third quarter, just under half of which was for institutional clients.

BancoEstado is wholly owned by the Republic of Chile, and is the country’s third-largest bank in terms of assets, loans and deposits.